Psychronicle
Spring 2008
A newsletter from the Department of Psychology at Washington University in St. Louis
Martha Storandt marks 50th year with Department
By Randy Larsen
I
n 1958 Martha Storandt left
Little Rock, Arkansas, to attend
Washington University in St. Louis.
She has been here ever since.
She completed her BA at
Washington University, earned her
PhD at Washington University, and
completed her clinical internship at
the Jefferson Barracks VA center. After
that she obtained a research position
in the Psychology Department at
Washington University in 1966,
became a tenured associate professor
of psychology in 1977, and was promoted to full professor in 1983.
She rose up through our ranks at a
time when women faculty were rare at
Washington University. Her 50 years
of involvement with the Psychology
Department makes her the longest
Martha Storandt
serving member of our current faculty. This year, Martha will begin a
phased retirement program, and we
thought it would be a fitting time for
a retrospective look at her career in
psychology at Washington
University.
During her undergraduate years,
Martha changed her major several
times, starting first in chemistry, then
physics, then math, and finally psychology. She had a love for numbers,
and psychology offered many statistics and psychometrics classes. She
took all of Professor DuBois’ classes,
which were heavily mathematical.
This affinity for numbers has served
her well over the years, both in her
research and teaching careers.
After finishing her BA degree,
Martha worked for two years at the
St. Louis County Health Department.
The research examined cognitive
development in K through 2nd grade.
This experience solidified her interests
in cognitive development, and
throughout her career she has, in one
way or another, always been focused
on cognitive changes, particularly
those associated with aging and with
diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease.
Martha elected to stay at
Washington University for graduate
school. The Psychology Department
had a new training grant in aging,
and Martha was an early trainee on
that program. The department
required all graduate students at that
time to take two semesters of experimental psychology, which culminated
in an independent research project.
For her project, Martha undertook a
continued on page 2
Alumni Profile: Nathan Dardick, AB 1971
N
ate Dardick was an undergrad-
by those incentives. Nate wanted to
laude.” The five professors who
uate at Washington University
learn as much as he could about why
formed the examining committee
in the turbulent but exciting era of
people behave the way they do, so he
had each, at one time or another,
the late 1960s. He came from a typical
switched his major to Psychology.
hired Nate to work in their laborato-
Midwestern, middle-class background,
Nate’s second course in psychol-
ries and so knew him very well. After
and held down several jobs while
ogy was “Psychological Statistics”
a perfunctory few questions they
attending Washington U., including
taught by Professor Philip DuBois
adjourned and took Nate to lunch to
repairing typewriters for IBM, writing
(Note: today the statistics lab in the
celebrate his degree with honors.
scripts for local radio shows, and
Psychology Building is dedicated to
serving as a teaching assistant in
the memory of Professor DuBois and
chology professors encouraged Nate
several classes.
has a large portrait of him promi-
to go on to graduate school in psy-
nently displayed in the classroom).
chology, and were pushing him to
several majors before settling on one
Given his talent with numbers, Nate
apply to Harvard. Nate was interested
that fit. Nate had a strong interest in
did extremely well in that class, and
in helping people, but thought psy-
numbers so he started out as a math
his competence did not go unnoticed
chology was too slow. He decided
major. He recalls enjoying the math
by the instructor. Professor DuBois
that law might provide a better
classes, even calculus, because of the
offered Nate a job as a research assis-
avenue, and so enrolled in the law
creativity of pure mathematics. Then
tant in his laboratory, where they
school at the University of Chicago.
him an edge in the course, and he
he took an economics course and
were doing learning research for the
“I really disliked law school for the
decided to specialize in securities law.
became excited about the possibility
Navy. To this day, Nate expresses his
most part,” he reports, “especially
of combining the rigor of mathemat-
gratitude to Professor DuBois for giv-
after having such a positive experi-
tion with a small firm in Chicago
ics with real-world human and
ing him this break as well as intro-
ence with psychology at Washington
where he helped them specialize in
financial consequences, which
ducing him to the scientific side
U.” But he stuck it out and was
class action suits over securities viola-
intrigued him. So he switched to
of psychology.
helped along the way by a few posi-
tions. He also handled banking law,
PHOTO BY DALE WINEINGER
Like many undergraduates, he tried
Upon his graduation, several psy-
Nathan Dardick
After law school, Nate took a posi-
tive experiences during this time,
real estate and leasing law, and part-
active research programs began to
including a summer job working
nership law. Nate claims that his
“Introduction to Psychology” course
take notice of this bright undergradu-
with law professors on a landmark
training in psychology helped him
from Professor Robin Tucker. The
ate in their midst and hired Nate to
study of the effects of the federal gun
become a better lawyer. For example,
more he learned about psychology,
work in their laboratories as well,
control act of 1968 (published in the
the social skills he acquired in
the more Nate came to realize that
including Professors Bunch, Fox, and
Journal of Legal Studies, 1975, vol. 4,
Professor Robin Tucker’s psychother-
economics is really about how people
Tucker. When it came time to gradu-
p. 133). Another positive experience
apy research came in handy in nego-
respond to incentives, both gains and
ate, Nate elected to sit for the oral
during law school was a course Nate
tiating with clients as well as in
losses, and how their learning, and
exam to determine if his degree
took on securities law and taxation.
hence future behavior, can be shaped
should be awarded “Summa cum
His love for numbers and math gave
an economics major.
A short time later, Nate took the
Other psychology professors with
continued on page 14
1
Chairperson’s Corner
A
nother year has flown by and writing
this column provides an opportunity
to pause and reflect on recent events.
Last year I reported that we finished construction on the 16,500-square-foot addition to the Psychology Building. This year
we have begun filling that up with new faculty members and laboratories. This fall
three new members joined our department.
Ian Dobbins (PhD, University of CaliforniaDavis) was recruited from Duke to join our
faculty. He studies the neuroscience of
memory and is a great addition to our program in Behavior, Brain, and Cognition. Simine Vazire (Ph.D., University
of Texas at Austin) also joined our faculty after completing a post-doctoral year at the University of Virginia. She studies how people construe
the personalities of others and will bolster our program in Social and
Personality Psychology. In addition, Heather Rice, who just finished her
Ph.D. at Duke, joined our faculty as a lecturer and has become a valuable
asset to our teaching mission. We also hired a new faculty member to
start next fall — Lori Markson (Ph.D., University of Arizona) was
recruited from Berkeley to join our faculty. She studies the development
of language and social cognition in infants and toddlers. She will anchor
the lower age span in our Development and Aging program. Currently,
we are interviewing for potential new faculty in the areas of behavior
genetics and women’s studies.
Last year we conferred 217 bachelor degrees in Psychology, more than
any other department at the University. We also taught over 10,000
credit hours to undergraduates, again more than any other department
at the University. Besides teaching a lot of courses, we also do it very well
— over 80 percent of our course evaluations are above the University
average. We also do extremely well in research. For example, our faculty
received $7.7 million in new research grants this year. Our graduate program remains strong, with 82 graduate students. This year we received a
new training grant from the National Institute of General Medical
Sciences to prepare graduate students for research careers at the interface
of psychology, neuroscience, and genetics. We now have three training
grants that are used to support excellence in graduate education in
our Department.
We continue to add new and interesting courses to our undergraduate
curriculum. New courses this year include “The Science of Sleep” and
“Critical Thinking With and About Psychology.” Also, after several years
off, we have reintroduced courses on “Positive Psychology” and “The
Cognitive Neuroscience of Film.” We are also offering a section of
“Statistics” that is taught in tandem with a section of “Experimental
Psychology.” And our “Psychology of Learning” course now has a
“Laboratory” section. Our graduate program continues to expand
and attract some of the top applicants in the country. All in all, our
Department continues to improve along every dimension.
Washington University just finished a decade-long program of
improvement, called “Project 21.” This initiative propelled the
University to new levels of success in every area, including increased
enrollments, attracting higher quality students, recruiting outstanding
new faculty, and building first-class laboratories and classrooms.
Psychology has certainly contributed to, and benefited from, this push
to excellence. Our national reputation has increased dramatically, and
we now compete with the best institutions in the country. This year
every unit in the University has been working on formulating a new 10year strategic plan, which will be announced by the chancellor in 2008.
The new strategic plan will build on our strengths but also add new goals
to work toward. We in the Psychology Department look forward to participating in a new era of achievement as this plan comes online.
The Department of Psychology has just finished another interesting
and fruitful year. I hope reading about our accomplishments in this
newsletter will make you proud to be associated with our Department. I
certainly feel honored to be chairing the Department during these exciting and productive times.
Randy J. Larsen
Chair, Psychology Department
2
Martha Storandt
from page 1
study on interhemispheric transfer of
joining our faculty, Martha has perinformation, demonstrating slower
sonally supervised 32 PhD dissertareaction times for contralateral infortions and has been on the committees
mation. This class project became her
of countless more. She is an enthusifirst publication, and it formed the
astic and tireless teacher, and her
basis of her dissertation. Because her
office door is always open for her studegree was in clinical psychology,
dents and her colleagues seeking her
Martha completed an internship and
knowledge and wise counsel.
elected to do that at the Jefferson
The focus of Martha’s recent
Barracks Veterans Affairs Center.
research is on understanding (a) the
During this time she had her son,
longitudinal course of Alzheimer’s disEric, in 1968.
ease and (b) the transition from
Around this time, Martha also
healthy aging to very mild dementia.
obtained a research appointment in
She also conducts research on
the Psychology Department working
enhancing memory performance in
with Jack Botwinick, who was a new
normally aging older people. A curfaculty member at the time, brought
rent emphasis is on understanding
in to bolster the aging program and
the personality correlates of memory
administer the aging training grant.
complaints and how these may influOut of this collaboration came
ence treatment. Martha has also
Martha’s first book, coserved on the National
authored with Jack,
“Martha Storandt has Advisory Council on
titled Memory, Related
been teaching graduate Aging (the advisory
Functions, and Age pubbody for the National
statistics here for as
lished in 1974. For the
Institute on Aging) and
long as anyone can
next several years,
is a past editor-in-chief
while she was raising
remember.”
of the Journal of
her son, Martha cobGerontology. She has
bled together a flexible part-time
also served as the chief editorial adviteaching and research schedule. The
sor for the American Psychological
University had no maternal leave proAssociation’s journals and publication
gram at the time, and it was difficult
program. She has received a number
for women with young children to
of awards from the American
serve in full-time faculty positions.
Psychological Association—for outIn 1976 Martha submitted a large
standing contributions to the study of
program project grant containing
aging, as a master mentor, and, most
eight separate research projects on
recently, for her seminal contribuaging and involving many of the psytions to the development of the field
chology faculty. The program project
of clinical geropsychology.
was funded and became a catalyst to
The Department of Psychology at
forming a corps of research psycholoWashington University has indeed
gists interested in aging. Although
been fortunate to have Martha
specific people have changed over the
Storandt on its faculty. She has conyears, a group of people with strong
tributed to the tremendous growth in
research interest in aging still exists
our reputation over the past few
within psychology today, thanks to
decades, has been a master teacher in
Martha’s original insight in 1976.
our department, and has been an
Today that core of research
enthusiastic leader in a large group of
interest has solidified into the
aging and Alzheimer’s researchers.
Washington University Center for
This year Washington University
Aging. In the mid-1970s, a related
announced a phased retirement proeffort also started, which concerned
gram, whereby senior faculty memseveral research projects on
bers can cut back on their
Alzheimer’s disease, a disease of
commitments to the University gradaging. In the mid-1980s this research
ually over several years. Martha has
interest formed the basis for our
elected to begin this phased retireAlzheimer’s Disease Research Center,
ment, primarily by cutting back on
which today is one of the top centers
her teaching role. She still intends to
in the United States focusing on this
do some teaching and to maintain a
disease. Martha played, and continsmaller scale research program in
ues to play, critical roles for both the
aging and Alzheimer’s disease. She
Aging Center and the Alzheimer’s
hopes now to devote more time to
Disease Research Center. For examdeveloping her hobbies, which
ple, she has managed the psychometinclude traveling with her husband,
ric core of the ADRC for many years
Duane, snorkeling, and reading sciand is currently serving as its associence fiction. The whole department
ate director for clinical research.
wants to wish her well as she begins
Martha became a full-time tenured
this transition and to thank her sinassociate professor in the Psychology
cerely for her many years of outstandDepartment in 1977. She has been
ing service.
teaching graduate statistics here for as
long as anyone can remember. In
addition she regularly teaches courses
on aging and on clinical geropsychology. She also has led our research
ethics brown bag series, which we
require of all graduate students. Since
Psychology
Department
FY07–08 Donors
Alumni Updates
Please email Jim Clancy at
[email protected] to include information about yourself in next year’s issue.
’50s
ing at the business school at the
Press and should be published in
W
University of South Florida. He and
early 2009.
to support programs of the
University of Texas M.D. Anderson
Cancer Center in Houston.
Walter Nord, PhD ’67, is teach-
book, Quirks, covering important but
neglected human behavior, is under
contract with Harvard University
Ken Waldman, MA ’71, PhD,
e greatly appreciate
donations from the
following individuals,
foundations, and corporations
Donald H. Kausler, PhD ’51, gave
his wife, Ann, also a WU psych grad,
a talk on memory and aging in
are completing a book on the philoso-
is director of Counseling and
apologize for any omissions due
November 2007 to Washington
phy of organization studies to be pub-
Psychological Services at the
to the publication date.
University alumni living in central
lished by Earlbaum.
University of Houston and has had
Dr. Robert Assael
Missouri. Professor Kausler is emeritus
Dennis Brophy, MA ’68, PhD,
a private practice since 1977.
David A. Bremer, PhD ’73, is
Psychology Department. We
Dr. James Russell Bailey
professor of psychology at the
Dennis’s fourth article in a continu-
University of Missouri–Columbia.
ing series about his research on the
working as a VA psychologist in
nature of creative problem solving
Honolulu and is currently the psy-
Dr. Walter F. Ballinger
and who may be best suited (individ-
chology internship training director
Mrs. Carole Ann Benbassat
Robert L Williams, PhD ’61, is
uals, small groups, organizations) to
for the VA Pacific Islands Health Care
Dr. David Samuel Bush
completing a book on the history of
do it appeared in the Creativity
System.
black psychology. The book will
Research Journal last fall.
’60s
include the beginnings of black psy-
David A. Crenshaw, PhD ’69,
Mark Troy, MA ’74, is associate
director of Measurement and
Mrs. Mary Randolph G. Ballinger
Mr. James Francis Fowler
Dr. Andrew Mark Futterman
chology in 1968 and will include
has written two books on strategies in
Research Services at Texas A&M
Dr. Elizabeth Frey Grodsky
biographies of outstanding black psy-
child and adolescent psychotherapy
University where he has worked since
Dr. James N. Hood
chologists Kenneth Clark, Martin
and co-authored two books on work-
1988. Mark’s responsibilities at A&M
Dr. Carl F. Hoppe
Jenkins, etc. Recently he was on a lec-
ing with aggressive children. He is
include assessing the university’s
Mr. Mark Jacobs
ture tour discussing his latest book on
director and founder of the Rhinebeck
institutional effectiveness, evaluating
racism learned at an early age
Child & Family Center in Rhinebeck,
courses, and conducting institutional
through racial scripting.
New York, which consults and does
surveys.
Everett Garvin, PhD ’62, is now
training with agencies working with
Nancy Berland, PhD ’75, is
Dr. Samuel Karson
Dr. Mary Ann Keithler
Dr. Robert E. Lamp
86 years old and is still going strong.
at-risk children as well as a private
in a private practice group in
Dr. Peter Alexander Lichtenberg
He has an office and contracts with
practice that focuses on children and
Birmingham, Alabama, specializing
Dr. Frank L. Mannino
Social Security disability and mental
families.
in eating disorders. She would love to
Ms. Lisa Marchiondo
hear from her classmates at
disability client evaluations. In the
spring through the summer it is TEN-
’70s
[email protected]
Rabbi Melinda M. Mersack
Dr. Raj K. Narayan
in Washington, D.C., for 26 years
Marsha Graubard Greenstein,
PhD ’76, is continuing in private
memories. He would like to hear from
with the Federal Government and
practice in Newton, Massachusetts,
Dr. Peter Nathan
classmates or professors at 22
now has an independent practice in
where she specializes in the treat-
Dr. Rudy V. Nydegger
Common St., Groton, MA. 01450; e-
Plainfield, New Hampshire.
ment of children and adolescents.
NIS, TENNIS, TENNIS. Everett lives at
Michael W. Mills, PhD ’70, worked
Washington U. in spirit and great
mail: [email protected].
Robert R. Provine, PhD ’71, The
Following an advanced traineeship in
Dr. Tina M. Narayan
Mr. Thomas Frederich Oltmanns
Dr. Daniel Jay Simons
Today Show (NBC) aired a piece featur-
the Children and the Law Program
chair of the Department of Symptom
ing his research about contagious
through the Harvard Department of
Dr. Lin Wang
Research and the McCullough
yawning, “Super Yawns,” on
Psychiatry, Marsha also serves as a
Dr. Amy Ruth Wolfson
Professor of Cancer Research at the
November 11, 2007. Robert’s latest
guardian ad litem, making recom-
Dr. Candace Young
Charles S. Cleeland, PhD ’66, is
continued on page 10
Awards and Highlights
Department Award Winners
The Hyman Meltzer Memorial
Award in Psychology was created
to honor Hy’s teaching, research,
and practice, and his devotion to the
betterment of others. His work
helped to shape the field of psychology in general and Industrial/
Organizational Psychology in particular. The Meltzer award is given to a
student who has demonstrated superior scholarship and outstanding
research and also demonstrates special character. The 2007 recipient
was Kevin Mulqueeny. Kevin was
involved in a research project that
examined what preschool children
know about the written word that is
most important to them — namely,
their own name. In his junior year,
Kevin studied at the University of
Sussex, England, on our study
abroad program and undertook
research that culminated in a poster
presentation at the Psychonomic
Society meetings. Kevin’s honors
research thesis was entitled: The
Effects of Talker Variability on English
Vocabulary Learning.
The 9th annual John A. Stern
Undergraduate Research Award
was established in honor of Professor
John Stern for his support, encouragement, and efforts on behalf of
undergraduate research. The award
recognizes a student’s undergraduate
record of achievement in research,
not merely a single research project.
The 2007 recipient was Elizabeth R.
Schotter. Liz majored in psychology
and in classics, graduated with honors, summa cum laude, and was
elected to Phi Beta Kappa. She also
was the recipient of the Eugene
Tavenner Prize for academic excellence in classics and received honorable mention from the National
Science Foundation Graduate
Research Fellowship Program. Her
honors research thesis was entitled:
Going from dip to dipped and ding to
dinged: The Influence of Phonological
Neighbors.
The 1st annual Outstanding
Teaching Assistant Award recipient was Denise Martin Zona.
“Denise has clearly demonstrated the
capacity to be an effective and charis-
matic teacher.
She also has
been successful in providing individual
guidance and
support to
students having difficulty
in the course.
Over and
Denise Martin Zona
above her
important contributions to teaching
she has been effective in contributing
to a positive emotional atmosphere
— one that enriches the class as a
whole.”
The 4th
annual
Outstanding
Teaching
Award recipient was Jan
Duchek.
Jan Duchek
“She teaches
in a manner
that relates
very well
with stu-
dents, she’s funny, and very knowledgeable of the subject matter. Her
courses stick out as some of the best
that I've taken at Washington U. Her
lectures are always clear and organized. The exams and projects she
assigns have really challenged me.”
Faculty
Dave Balota won a “Distinguished
Alumni” award from the University
of Missouri-St. Louis this year.
Deanna Barch won the 2007
NAMI (National Alliance for the
Mentally Ill), St. Louis Outstanding
Scientist award. Deanna was also
appointed by the American
Psychiatric Association to the DSM-V
workgroup for psychosis.
Stanley Finger received the
Reynolds Award and Fellowship from
Baylor University. Stan also published
his 10th book: Brain, Mind and
Medicine: Essays in Eighteenth-Century
Neuroscience. Boston: Springer. (with
H. Whitaker and C.U.M. Smith).
Len Green was the Invited Master
Lecture at the 28th Annual Meeting
of the Society of Behavioral Medicine
in Washington, DC, March, 2007.
continued on page 9
3
Cheri Casanova
Receives 2007
Outstanding Staff
Award
C
heri has been a staff member
in the Washington University
Psychology Department continuously since 1982.
During those two and a half
decades, she has served in the position of “Assistant to the Chair”
for five of the eight chairs the
Department has had since its founding. As such, Cheri plays a huge role
in our institutional memory and
the transfer of knowledge in our
Department. In this role Cheri has, at
one time or
another, also
served the
Department in
almost every
staff position
we have
(which
includes nine
different HR
job classifica- Cheri Casanova
tions). This
makes her an invaluable resource in
terms of back-up, including covering
for various jobs when people are out,
assisting with work over-load in the
various positions, and training new
people into their positions. Cheri literally has “done it all” and is eager to
share her expertise and time to help
the departmental mission.
Someone once said that, “Behind
every successful chair, there is an outstanding assistant.” Cheri has been
that outstanding assistant for many
chairs in psychology. She has been an
important part of the remarkable
transformation the Psychology
Department has undergone in the last
decade. Cheri has many personal
qualities that make her outstanding
in this position. She is well organized
and has excellent time-management
and prioritizing skills. Even though
Cheri has been working here longer
than any other staff member, she
always has fresh suggestions and new
ideas. She is always neat, punctual,
and very professional, a set of attributes especially valuable in the chair’s
office. She has a friendly and outgoing personality, with a very up-beat
temperament. Cheri reinforces the
positive reputation of the Psychology
Department in the eyes of the various
students, scholars, scientists, administrators, and other visitors who pass
through the chair’s office.
Cheri was selected for this award
from a large pool of nominees who
were submitted for consideration by
virtue of their outstanding contributions to the research and teaching
mission of Arts & Sciences. Cheri
received her award from Dean Macias
at a special awards ceremony held on
April 30, 2007. The Psychology
Department is especially proud to
have Cheri on our staff.
New Faculty and Staff
I
an Dobbins joins the depart-
ment as associate professor.
Ian completed his BS in psychology at
the University of Washington in
Seattle and after a four-and-a-halfyear tour in the U.S. Navy, went on to
complete his PhD at the University of
California in Davis. Following a fouryear appointment at Duke University
as an assistant professor he joined
Washington University as an associate professor in the fall of 2007. Ian
conducts research that focuses on the
intersection of episodic memory and
decision-making using behavioral
studies, simple mathematical models
and simulations, and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during memory problems. Recent work
in his lab has focused on the contribution of prefrontal cortex in the
deliberate retrieval of memories. This
NIH-funded research tries to tease
apart the contribution of various prefrontal cortex regions in recovering
episodic memories. A second line of
research revolves around what are
loosely referred to as decision criteria,
or the standards by which we judge a
memory as sufficient for a given situation. As an example of this research,
recent work in the lab suggests that
implicit, reward-based learning may
drive people towards cautious or lax
memory decision tendencies without
conscious awareness that they are
changing the basis for their memory
judgments. This is potentially important since decision criteria are usually
altered in the laboratory by giving
subjects explicit verbal warnings
about their performance. Hobbies
include basketball, fishing, and crude
attempts at woodworking and
carpentry.
Heather Rice joined the
Psychology Department in August
2007. Heather completed her BS in
Psychology at Arizona State
University and her PhD in Cognitive
Psychology at Duke University. Her
research examines cognitive processes
involved in memory retrieval. More
specifically, Heather is interested in
the role of visual images during
retrieval, such as how they affect the
type of information recovered from
memory and their influence on individuals’ phenomenological experience during retrieval. Currently, her
work focuses on the effect of using
Left to right: Heather Rice, Ian Dobbins, and Simine Vazire.
first-person versus third-person perspective imagery. She is also interested in applying memory research to
improve teaching practices. Heather
teaches “Experimental Psychology”
and “Introductory Psychology.”
In her free time, Heather likes eating good food (especially desserts),
listening to local music, watching
movies, and jogging with her dog.
She recently has been dabbling in
“trying not to kill plants,” which is
the closest she’s ever gotten to gardening. And she enjoys putting up
with her partner, Ian Dobbins, who is
also in the Psychology Department.
Simine Vazire joins the
Department as assistant professor.
Simine received her undergraduate
degree from Carleton College and her
PhD in social/personality psychology
from the University of Texas—Austin
in 2006. She conducts research on
the accuracy of self and other perceptions of personality. Her current work
examines differences between how
people see themselves, how they are
seen by others, and how they behave.
The overall goal is to understand the
limits and function of self-knowledge, including the interpersonal and
intrapersonal consequences of knowing one’s own personality traits and
behavior. For example, how does a
person’s self-awareness of their own
personality affect their well-being?
How does it affect how much others
like them? Another line of research
examines how feedback affects selfknowledge, personality, and wellbeing. Simine also likes to think
about methodological issues involved
with measuring behavior, self-reports,
and peer reports. In her spare time,
Left to right: Norma Urani, Amy Toenjes, and Heather Grogan.
4
Simine hangs out with her dog, Bear.
She also likes to travel and read.
Heather Grogan joined the
Psychology Department staff after
graduating from Washington
University this past May. In the
morning she works as a research
assistant in the Emotion and
Psychophysiology Lab, moving to the
front desk as an administrative assistant during the afternoon hours. In
the future Heather would like to pursue a degree in landscape architecture, focusing specifically on
restorative gardens. Leisure activities
include running, drawing, and strolls
through the park with a friend.
Amy Toenjes is the Department’s
new payroll coordinator. Previously,
Amy worked at the Residential Life
Office where she handled student
meal plans, bi-weekly payroll, and
accounts payables for the Congress of
the South 40. Amy lives in Belleville,
Ill., with her husband, Dave; fiveyear-old daughter, Celia; and miniature dachshund, Chloe. In her spare
time she loves to run and completed
her first marathon last April. Amy is
also very active in the Parent’s Club
at Cathedral Grade School where
Celia is in kindergarten.
Norma Urani is the Department’s
new morning receptionist. Norma
previously worked for 14 years on the
medical school campus in neurology
and the Alzheimer’s Disease Research
Center (ADRC) and was the administrative secretary to Dr. Leonard Berg,
founder of the ADRC, and to Dr.
John Morris, now the director of the
ADRC and director of the WU Harvey
A. Friedman Center for Aging.
Norma lives in South County
with her two Persian cats, Arlee and
Simon, is a gardener, and loves to
work in her large yard. She belongs to
the Alfa Romeo Owners Car Club and
has a red Spider Graduate. An annual
Spring Fling (May) in Washington,
Missouri, along with the Kansas City
and Chicago Clubs ends with a
“Rally” to a winery and banquet. The
club members also participate in the
annual Columbus Day Parade on
“The Hill.” In her spare time she is an
avid reader, enjoying a wide variety
of books, she also sings in a church
choir. She loves to travel, having
been to Europe, England, and Ireland.
2006–2007 Publications from the Department of Psychology
Following is a list of some of the recent
publications of the members of the
Department of Psychology. If you are
interested in receiving a copy of any of
the articles, feel free to drop a note to
the author: Department of Psychology,
Washington University in St. Louis,
Campus Box 1125, One Brookings Drive,
St. Louis, MO 63130-4899.
Note: Bold names are department
faculty, bold italicized names are
department graduate students or
postdocs
Books and Book Chapters
Balota, D.A., Duchek, J.M., &
Logan, J.M. (2007) Is expanded
retrieval practice a superior form of
spaced retrieval? A critical review of
the extent literature. Nairne, J.S. (Ed.),
The foundations of remembering: Essays
in honor of Henry L. Roediger III (pages
83-106). New York: Psychology Press.
Balota, D.A., & Yap, M.J.
Attentional control and flexible lexical processing; Explorations of the
magic moment in word recognition.
S. Andrews S. (Ed). From Inkmarks to
ideas (pages 229-258). Psychology
Press.
Balota, D.A., Yap, M.J., & Cortese,
M.I. Visual word recognition. The
journey from features to meaning (A
Travel update). M. Traxler & M.A.
Gernsbacher (Eds). Psycholinguistics,
2nd Edition (pages 285-376). Oxford
University Press.
Faust, M.E., & Balota, D.A.
Inhibition, Facilitation, and Attention
Control in Dementia of the
Alzheimer Type: The role of unifying
principles in cognitive theory development. D.S. Gorfein & C. McLeod’s
(Eds) The place of inhibition in
Cognition (pages 213-238). Psychology
Press.
Barch, D. M., & Braver, T.S.
(2007). Cognitive control in schizophrenia: Psychological and neural
mechanisms. Engle, R. W., Sedek, G.,
von Hecker, U., & McIntosh, D.N.
(Eds). Cognitive Limitations in Aging
and Psychopathology: Attention,
Working Memory, and Executive
Functions.
Braver, T.S. (2007). Working memory. In Smith, E.E. and Kosslyn, S.M.
(Eds.) Cognition: Mind and Brain
(pp.239-297). New York: Prentice
Hall.
(2007). Variation in working memory
across the life span. In. A. R. Conway,
C. Jarrold, M.J. Kane, A. Miyake, & J.
N. Towse (Eds.), Variation in working
memory. New York: Oxford University
Press.
Varieties and puzzles. In Roediger,
H.L., Dudai, Y. & Fitzpatrick, S.M.
Science of Memory: Concepts. (pp. 225229). Oxford University Press.
Daniels, K.A., Toth, J.P., & Jacoby,
L.L. (2006). The aging of executive
functions. In F.I.M. Craik & E.
Bialystok (Eds.), Lifespan Cognition:
Mechanisms of Change, pp.96-111.
Oxford University Press.
false memories through associated
lists: A window onto everyday false
memories? In Nairne, J.S. (Ed.), The
foundations of remembering: Essays in
honor of Henry L. Roediger III. (pp. 297331). New York: Psychology Press.
Rhodes, M.G. & Jacoby, L.L. (2007).
Toward analyzing cognitive illusions:
Past, present and future. In J.S. Nairne
(Ed.), The foundations of remembering:
Essays in honor of Henry L. Roediger III.
pp.379-394. New York: Psychology
Press.
Oltmanns, T.F., & Okada, M.
Denning, Keith, Kessler, B., &
Leben, William R. (2007). English
vocabulary elements. (2nd ed.) New
York: Oxford University Press.
Larsen, R.J. (2006). History of the
Psychology Department at Washington
University: 1924-2006. Published by
Washington University and used in
fund-raising campaigns and for PR.
Larsen, R.J. & Buss, D.A. (2007).
Personality Psychology: Domains of
Knowledge about Human Nature (3rd
Edition). New York: McGraw-Hill.
McDaniel, M.A. (2007).
Rediscovering transfer as a central
concept. In H. L. Roediger, Y. Dudai,
& S. Fitzpatrick (Eds.), Science of
Memory: Concepts (pp. 267-270). New
York: Oxford University Press.
McDaniel, M.A., & Einstein, G.O.
(2007). Prospective memory: An
overview and synthesis of an emerging
field. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage
Publications.
McDaniel, M.A., & Einstein, G.O.
(2007). Spontaneous retrieval in
prospective memory. In J. Nairne
(Ed.), The Foundations of Remembering:
Essays in Honor of Henry L. Roedgier III.
(pp. 227-242). Hove, UK: Psychology
Press
McDaniel, M.A., & Einstein, G.O.
(2007). Prospective memory components most at Risk for older adults
and implications for medication
adherence. In D.C. Park & L. Liu
(Eds.), Medical Adherence and Aging:
Social and Cognitive Perspectives (pp.
49-75). Washington, D.C.: American
Psychological Association.
Braver, T.S., Gray, J.R., & Burgess,
Roediger, H.L. & McDaniel, M.A.
G.C. (2007). Explaining the many
varieties of working memory variation: Dual mechanisms of cognitive
control. In Conway, A., Jarrold, C.,
Kane, M., Miyake, A., Towse, J. (Eds.)
Variation in Working Memory (pp. 76106). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
(2007). Illusory recollection in older
adults: Testing Mark Twain’s conjecture. In M. Garry and H. Hayne (Eds.),
Do Justice and Let the Sky Fall:
Elizabeth F. Loftus and Her
Contributions to Science, Law, and
Academic Freedom (pp.105-136).
Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum
Kagel, J.H., Battalio, R.C., & Green,
L. (2007). Economic choice theory: An
experimental analysis of animal behavior. New York: Cambridge University
Press. (Digitally printed first paperback edition of my 1995 book)
Hale, S., Myerson, J., Emery, L.,
Lawrence, B. M., & DuFault, C.L.
McDermott, K.B. & Miller, G.E.
(2007). Designing studies to avoid
confounds. In Critical Thinking in
Psychology. (pp. 131-142). R.J.
Sternberg, H.L. Roediger, & D.
Halpern (Eds). Cambridge University
Press.
McDermott, K.B. (2007). Retrieval:
McDermott, K.B. (2007). Inducing
(2006). Paranoia. In J.E. Fisher and W.
O’Donohue (Eds.), Practitioner’s guide
to evidence-based psychotherapy (pp.
503-513). Kluwer Academic.
Oltmanns, T.F., & Klonsky, E.D.
(2006). Critical thinking in clinical
inference. In R.J. Sternberg, H.
Roediger, & D. Halpern (Eds.), Critical
Thinking in Psychology (pp. 196-215).
New York: Cambridge University
Press.
Dosenbach, N.U.F., Petersen, S.E.
“Attentional Networks.” In press, New
Encyclopedia of Neuroscience.
Holaway, R.M., Rodebaugh, T.L., &
Heimberg, R.G. (2006). The epidemiology of worry and generalized anxiety disorder. Worry & Psychological
Disorders: Theory, Assessment &
Treatment. Edited by Davey & Wells.
Roediger, H.L., Dudai, Y., &
Fitzpatrick, S. M. (2007). Science of
memory: Concepts. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
Sternberg, R.J., Roediger, H.L., &
Halpern, D. (Eds.) (2007). Critical
thinking in psychology. New York:
Cambridge University Press.
Roediger, H.L., & McCabe, D.
(2007). Evaluating experimental
research. In R. Sternberg, H.L.
Roediger, & D. Halpern. (Eds) Critical
Thinking in Psychology. (pp. 15-36).
New York: Cambridge University
Press.
Roediger, H.L. (2007). Teaching,
research, and more: Psychologists in
an Academic Career. In R.J. Sternberg
(Ed.), Career Paths in Psychology, 2e.
(pp. 9-33). Washington, DC: APA
Press. (2nd Ed.)
Dudai, Y., Roediger, H.L., &
Tulving, E. (2007). Memory Concepts.
In H.L. Roediger, Y. Dudai, & S.M.
Fitzpatrick, (Eds.) Science of memory:
Concepts. (pp. 1-9). New York: Oxford
University Press.
Morris, J.C., & Storandt, M. (2006).
Detecting early-stage Alzheimer's disease in MCI and preMCI: The value of
informants. In M. Jucker, K.
Beyreuther, C. Haass, R. Nitsch, & Y.
Christen (Eds.). Alzheimer: 100 years
and beyond, research and perspectives in
Alzheimer's disease (pp. 392-397).
Berlin: Springer-Verlag.
Treiman, R. (2006). Knowledge
about letters as a foundation for reading and spelling. In R.M. Joshi & P.G.
Aaron (Eds.), Handbook of orthography
and literacy (pp. 581-599). Mahwah,
NJ: Erlbaum.
Publications in NonRefereed Journals,
Book Reviews
Braver, T.S. & Barch, D.M. (2006).
Extracting core components of cognitive control. Trends in Cognitive
Sciences, 10, 529-532.
Green, L. (2007). On choice and self
control: What’s the future worth to
you? Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 33
Supplement, xiv.
Larsen, R.J. (2007). Personality,
emotion, and daily health. In A.
Stone and S. Shiffman (Eds.), The science of real-time data capture: Selfreports in health research. New York:
Oxford University Press.
Larsen, R.J. (2007). Applications of
within-person covariation analyses to
affect. In A.D. Ong and M. van
Dulmen (Eds.), Handbook of Methods
in Positive Psychology (pp. 339-348).
New York: Oxford University Press.
Larsen, R.J., & Prizmic, Z. (2006).
Multimethod measurement of emotion. In M. Eid and E. Diener (Eds.),
Handbook of measurement: A multimethod perspective (pp. 337352).Washington, DC: American
Psychological Association.
McDaniel, M.A. (2007). Applying
Cognitive Psychology to Education:
Editorial. Psychonomic Bulletin &
Review, 14, 185-186.
McAlvanah, P., Myerson, J., &
Green, L. (2006). Changes in risk
taking after viewing pictures of the
opposite gender. Abstracts of the
Psychonomic Society, 11, 119.
Szpunar, K.K. & McDermott, K.B.
(2007). Remembering the past to
imagine the Future. Cerebrum.
Roediger, H.L., McDaniel, M.A., &
McDermott, K.B. (2006). Test
Roediger, H.L. (2007). Transfer as a
Enhanced Learning. American
Psychological Society Observer, 19, 28.
critical concept in the science of
memory. In, H.L. Roediger, Y. Dudai,
& S.M. Fitzpatrick, (Eds.) Science of
memory: Concepts. (277-282). New
York: Oxford University Press.
Spokas, M.E., Rodebaugh, T.L., &
Heimberg, R.G. (2007). Cognitive
biases in social anxiety disorder.
Psychiatry, 6, 204-210.
Roediger, H.L., Rajaram, S., &
Roediger, H.L., (2006). Archival
Geraci, L. (2007). Three forms of consciousness in retrieving memories.
Chapter in P. D. Zelazo, M.
Moscovitch, & E. Thompson (Eds.),
Cambridge handbook of consciousness.
(pp. 251-287). New York: Cambridge
University Press.
publication: Another brick in the
wall? APS Observer 19:9
Roediger, H.L., (2007). Twelve tips
for reviewers. APS Observer 20:4
continued on page 6
5
Publications from page 5
Roediger, H.L., (2007). Twelve tips
for authors. APS Observer 20:6
Zacks, J.M. & Maley, C. J. (2007).
What’s hot in psychology. APS
Observer, 20, 23-26.
Articles and Presentations
Veiel, L., Storandt, M., & Abrams,
R.A. (2006). Visual search for
change in older Adults. Psychology
and Aging, 21, 754-762.
Christ, S.E. & Abrams, R.A. (2006).
Abrupt onsets cannot be ignored.
Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 13,
875-880.
Christ, S.E., Steiner, R.D., Grange,
D.K., Abrams, R.A., & White, D.A.
(2006). Inhibitory control in children with phenylketonuria.
Developmental Neuropsychology, 30,
845-864.
Psi Chi Corner
he Washington University chapter of Psi Chi, the National Honor
Society in Psychology, was established on February 29, 1984. This
being our fourth leap-year anniversary, it is appropriate to point out
the purpose of the organization. As stated in our charter, “The purpose of
the organization shall be primarily to advance the science of psychology;
and secondly, to encourage, stimulate, and maintain scholarship of the
individual [student] members in all academic fields, particularly in psychology.”
Our chapter, in addition to supporting the purposes of the organization, exists to provide service to our undergraduate majors and minors, as
well as the University and local community. Foremost, the chapter recognizes outstanding students of psychology, and this year the chapter welcomed 44 undergraduates into the Society. The initiation ceremony was
conducted by the officers of the chapter along with the Psychology
Department’s undergraduate coordinator, Dru Koscielniak. Held in the
Great Room of Lopata House, the ceremony was followed by a reception
at which the initiates received their membership certificate as well as a
Psi Chi mug.
As part of its tradition of serving our students, Psi Chi held its annual
fall session on “Preparing for and Applying to Graduate Study in
Psychology.” The evening’s session included two psychology faculty who
spoke on and answered questions about how to prepare for graduate
study during one’s undergraduate years, the steps involved in applying to
graduate programs, and the details about the selection process. In addition, a graduate student offered personal experiences and recommendations about considering graduate programs, whom to contact, and when.
Another session sponsored by the chapter provided information on
PsyD, PhD, MSW, OT, and PT programs and degrees. Distinctions and
comparisons among the graduate programs were discussed, and details
about the professions and careers provided. An admission counselor from
the Chicago School of Professional Psychology, an admissions recruiter
from the George Warren Brown School of Social Work, a professor from
the clinical faculty of the Department of Psychology, and faculty from
Washington University’s Programs in Occupational Therapy and Physical
Therapy were present, along with a few graduate students from the
respective programs.
Several chapter members also attended and spoke at the Psychology
Department’s Freshmen Open House, welcoming entering first-year students and their families, the Sophomore Convocation, and a special
freshman session organized for first-year students who might be considering a major in Psychology. A special movie night, held at Ursa’s on the
South 40, included free popcorn as the Barry Levinson movie Rain Man,
starring Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise, was shown.
Members of our chapter’s Psi Chi were involved this year in several
activities that exemplify service to the broader community. For example,
in November, students spent an evening at the St. Louis Area Foodbank
where they packaged and organized food for St. Louis residents in need.
Then in December, students spent an evening at the Mary Ryder Home
helping nursing home residents decorate holiday cards.
Several members of Psi Chi volunteer for the psychology-student-developed program “Parents’ Night-Off.” Created by a Psi Chi member, the
Night-Off Program provides a free evening of child sitting monthly for
families with a child with autism, along with providing respite care and
support at bi-monthly events organized for children with autism. The
Night-Off Program also held a fundraiser with the proceeds contributed
to MO-FEAT, the Missouri Families for Effective Autism Treatment. The
executive director of MO-FEAT mentioned at its board meeting that the
contribution from the students was especially gratifying and appreciated.
The chapter has its own Web site, providing information to its members and all our students, including announcements about research and
job opportunities, upcoming scientific meetings and conventions, along
with links to other psychology-related organizations:
http://artsci.wustl.edu/%7Epsichi/home
T
6
Bulevich, J.B., Roediger, H.L.,
Balota, D.A., & Butler, A.B. (2006).
Failure to find suppression of episodic
memories in the think/no-think paradigm. Memory & Cognition, 34, 15691577.
Colombo, L., Pasini, M., & Balota,
D.A. (2006). Dissociating the influence of familiarity and meaningfulness from word frequency in naming
and lexical decision performance.
Memory & Cognition, 34, 1312-1324.
Cortese, M.J., Balota, D.A., SergentMarshall, S.D., Buckner, R.L., & Gold,
B.T. (2006). Consistency and regularity in past tense verb generation in
healthy aging, Alzheimer’s Disease,
and Semantic Dementia. Cognitive
Neuropsychology, 23,
856-876.
Duchek, J.M., Balota, D.A., &
Cortese, M.J. (2006). Prospective
memory and apolipoprotein E in
healthy aging and early stage
Alzheimer’s Disease. Neuropsychology,
20, 633-644.
Gold, B.T., Balota, D.A., Jones, S.J.,
Powell, D.K., Smith, C.D., &
Andersen, A.H. (2006). Dissociation of
automatic and strategic lexical-semantics: fMRI evidence for differing roles
of multiple frontotemporal regions.
Neuroscience, 26, 6523-6532.
Castell, A.D., Balota, D.A.,
Hutchison, K.A., Logan, J.M., & Yap,
M.J. (2007). Spatial Attention and
Response Control in Healthy Younger
and Older Adults and in Individuals
with Dementia of the Alzheimer’s
Type: Evidence for Disproportionate
Selection Breakdowns in the Simon
Task. Neuropsychology. 21, 170-182
Meade, M.L., Watson, J.M., Balota,
D.A., & Roediger, H.L. (2007). The
roles of spreading activation and
retrieval mode in producing false
recognition in the DRM paradigm.
Journal of Memory & Language, 56,
305-320.
Yap, M.J. & Balota, D.A. (2007).
Additive and interactive effects on
response time distributions in visual
word recognition. Journal of
Experimental Psychology: Learning,
Memory & Cognition, 23, 274-296.
Yap, M.J., Balota, D.A., Cortese,
M.J., & Watson, J.M. (2006). Single vs
dual process models of lexical decision performance: Insights from an
RT distributional analysis. Journal of
Experimental Psychology: Human
Perception & Performance, 37, 13241344.
Brahmbhatt, S., Haut, K.,
Csernansky, J.G., & Barch, D.M.
Mathews, J.R. & Barch, D.M.
(2006). Episodic memory for emotional and non-emotional words in
individuals with anhedonia.
Psychiatry Research, 143, 121-133.
Paxton, J.L., Barch, D.M.,
Storandt, M., & Braver, T.S.
(2006). Effects of environmental support and strategy training on older
adults’ use of context. Psychology and
Aging, 21, 499-509.
Rush, B.K., Barch, D.M., & Braver,
T.S. (2006). Accounting for cognitive aging: Context processing, inhibition or processing speed? Aging,
Neuropsychology and Cognition, 13,
588-610.
Racine, C., Barch, D.M., Noelle, D.,
& Braver, T.S. (2006). Changes in
strategic processing with age as measured by a category-learning paradigm. Aging, Neuropsychology and
Cognition, 13, 411-434.
Sheline, Y.I., Barch, D.M., WelshBoehmer, K., Gersing, K., Garcia, K.,
Pieper, C., Kraemer, H.C., &
Doraiswamy, P.M. (2006). Cognitive
function in late life depression:
Relationships to depression severity,
cerebrovascular risk factors and processing speed. American Journal of
Psychiatry, 60, 58-65.
Burbridge, J.A., & Barch, D.M.
(2007). Anhedonia and the subjective experience of emotion in schizophrenia. Journal of Abnormal
Psychology, 116, 30-42.
Mamah, D., Wang, L., Barch, D.M.,
de Erausquin, G. A., Thompson, P.,
Gado, M., & Csernansky, J.G. (2007).
Structural analysis of the basal ganglia in schizophrenia. Schizophrenia
Research, 89, 59-71.
McAuley, T. & Barch, D.M. (2007).
Performance on an episodic encoding task yields further insight into
functional brain development.
Neuroimage, 34, 815-826.
Boyer, P. & Lienard, P. (2006).
Why Ritualized Behaviour in
Humans? Precaution Systems and
Action-parsing in Developmental,
Pathological and Cultural Rituals,
Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 29: 156.
Boyer, P. (2006). Prosocial aspects
of afterlife beliefs: maybe another
by-product, Behavioral and Brain
Sciences, 25(5): 466-466.
Lienard, P. & Boyer, P. (2006).
Whence Cultural Rituals? A Cultural
Selection Model of Ritualized
Behaviour, American Anthropologist,
108(4): 814-827.
(2006). Neural correlates of verbal and
nonverbal working memory deficits
in individuals with schizophrenia and
their high-risk siblings. Schizohprenia
Research, 87, 191-204.
Bergstrom, B., Moehlmann, B., &
Boyer, P. (2006). How children
Haut, K.M. & Barch, D.M. (2006).
Sex influences on material-sensitive
functional activation in working and
episodic memory: Men and women
are not all that different. Neuroimage,
32, 411-422.
Schaefer, A., Braver, T.S.,
Reynolds, J.R., Burgess, G.C.,
Yarkoni, T., and Gray, J.R., (2006).
Event-related amygdala activity pre-
evaluate the source and scope of cultural information, Child Development,
77(3): 531-538.
dicts working memory performance.
Journal of Neuroscience, 26,1012010128.
Phenylketonuria and Tetrahydrobiopterin
Research. Heilbron: SBS Publishing.
Brown, J.W., Reynolds, J.R. and
Braver, T.S. (2007). A computational model of fractionated
conflict-control mechanisms in
task-switching. Cognitive Psychology,
55, 37-85.
2006. Medical electricity and madness in the eighteenth century: The
legacies of Benjamin Franklin and Jan
Ingenhousz. Perspectives in Biology and
Medicine, 49, 330-345.
DePisapia, N., Slomski, J.A., and
Braver, T.S. (2007). Functional spe-
and the neurosciences. Functional
Neurology, 21, 67-75.
cializations in lateral prefrontal cortex associated with the integration
and segregation of information
within working memory. Cerebral
Cortex, 17, 993-1006.
Zacks, J.M., Speer, N.K., Swallow,
K.M., Braver, T.S. and Reynolds,
J.R. (2007). Event perception: A
mind/brain perspective. Psychological
Bulletin, 133, 273-293.
Lee, M.M., Carpenter, B.D., &
Meyers, L.S. (2006). Representations
of older adults in television advertisements. Journal of Aging Studies, 21,
23-30.
Carpenter, B.D., Lee, M.,
Ruckdeschel, K., Van Haitsma, K.S., &
Feldman, P.H. (2006). Adult children
as informants about parent’s psychosocial preferences. Family
Relations, 55, 552-563.
Carpenter, B.D., & Buday, S. (2007).
Computer use among older adults in
a naturally-occurring retirement community. Computers in Human
Behavior, 23, 3012-3024.
Kissel, E.C., & Carpenter, B.D.
(2007). It’s all in the details:
Physician variability in disclosing a
dementia diagnosis. Aging and Mental
Health, 11, 273-280.
Christ, S. and Finger, S. 2006.
Retardation in the Family: Pearl S.
Buck and Phenylketonuria. In N. Blau
(Ed.), PKU and Advances in
Beaudreau, S.A., and Finger, S.
Finger, S. 2006. Benjamin Franklin
Estle, S.J., Green, L., Myerson, J.,
& Holt, D.D. (2006). Differential
effects of amount on temporal and
probability discounting of gains and
losses. Memory & Cognition, 34, 914928.
Estle, S. J., Green, L., Myerson, J.,
& Holt, D.D. (2007). Discounting of
monetary and directly consumable
rewards. Psychological Science, 18,
58-63.
Green, L., Myerson, J., Shah, A. K.,
Estle, S.J., & Holt, D.D. (2007). Do
adjusting-amount and adjustingdelay procedures produce equivalent
estimates of subjective value in
pigeons? Journal of the Experimental
Analysis of Behavior, 87, 337-347.
Jacoby, L.L., Bishara, A.J.,
Hessels, S. & Hughes, A. (2007).
Probabilistic retroactive interference:
The role of accessibility bias in interference effects. JEP: General, 136(2),
200-216.
Rhodes, M.G. & Jacoby, L.L. (2007).
On the dynamic nature of response
criterion in recognition memory:
Effects of base rate, awareness, and
feedback, Journal of Experimental
Psychology: Learning, Memory, &
Cognition, 33(2), 305-320.
Schacter, D.L.. Dawes. R., Jacoby,
L.L., Kahneman, D., Lempert, R.,
Roediger, H.L. & Robertson, R.
(2007). Policy Forum: Studying
Eyewitness Investigations in the
Field, Law Hum Behav. DO1
10.1007/s10979-007-9093-9.
Velanova, K., Lustig, C., Jacoby,
L.L., and Buckner, R.L. (2007).
Evidence for frontally-mediated
controlled processing differences in
older adults. Cerebral Cortex, 17(5),
1033-1046.
Woolverton, W.L., Myerson, J. &
Green, L. (2007). Delay discounting
of cocaine by rhesus monkeys.
Experimental and Clinical
Psychopharmacology, 15, 238-244.
Dockree, P.M., O’Keeffe, F.M.,
Moloney, P., Bishara, A.J., Carton,
S., Jacoby, L.L. & Robertson, I.H.
(2006). Capture by misleading information and its false acceptance in
patients with traumatic brain injury.
Brain: A Journal of Neurology, UK,
Oxford University Press, 129(1),
128-140.
Emery, L., Myerson, J., & Hale, S.
Jacoby, L.L., & Rhodes, M.G.
(2006). Saying versus touching: Are
age differences in short-term memory
affected by the type of response?
Journal of Gerontology: Psychological
Sciences, 61, P366-P368.
(2006). False remembering in the
aged. Current Directions in
Psychological Science, 15(2), 49-53.
Emery, L., Myerson, J., & Hale, S.
understanding and memory in
healthy aging and dementia of the
Alzhheimer type. Psychology and
Aging, 21(3), 466-482.
(2007). Age differences in item
manipulation span: The case of letternumber sequencing. Psychology &
Aging, 22, 75-83.
Zacks, J.M., Speer, N.K., Vettel,
J.M. & Jacoby, L.L. (2006). Event
Bourassa, D.C., Treiman, R., &
Kessler, B. (2006). Use of morphology in spelling by children with
dyslexia and typically developing
children. Memory & Cognition, 34,
703–714.
Treiman, R., Levin, I., & Kessler,
B. (2007). Learning of letter names
follows similar principles across languages: Evidence from Hebrew.
Journal of Experimental Child
Psychology, 96, 87-106.
Treiman, R., Kessler, B., & Evans,
R. (2007). Anticipatory conditioning
of spelling-to-sound translation.
Journal of Memory and Language, 56,
229-245.
Treiman, R., & Kessler, B. (2006).
Spelling as statistical learning: Using
consonantal context to spell vowels.
Journal of Educational Psychology, 98,
642–652.
Breneiser, J.E., & McDaniel, M.A.
(2006). Discrepancy processes in
prospective memory retrieval.
Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 13,
837-841.
Merritt, P., DeLosh, E., & McDaniel,
M.A. (2006). Effects of word frequency on individual-item and serial
order retention: Tests of the order
encoding view. Memory & Cognition,
34, 1615-1627.
Callender, A.A., & McDaniel, M.A.
(2007). The benefits of embedded
question Adjuncts for low and high
structure builders. Journal of
Educational Psychology, 99, 339-348.
Guynn, M.J., & McDaniel, M.A.
(2007). Target pre-exposure eliminates the effect of distraction on
event-based prospective memory.
Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 14,
484-488.
continued on page 8
The Cognitive Neuroscience of Film
By Jeff Zacks
P
sychology 488/PNP 488, “The
Cognitive Neuroscience of
Film,” is an advanced seminar that
was first developed in the spring of
2005 and that I will be teaching again
this spring semester. The course is
offered at the 400 level, which means
it is open both to graduate students
and to advanced undergraduates. Like
several of our advanced seminars, it
offers students the opportunity to
read primary research and theoretical
articles and discuss them in depth.
This course grew out of a convergence of research in psychology, neuroscience, and film theory on
questions of higher-level perception.
Perceptual psychologists have been
interested in film since its beginning,
and there is a small but exciting community of psychologists and cognitive neuroscientists currently working
on film and perception. These developments are reflected in the recent
launch of a journal devoted to the
intersection of film theory, psychology, and neuroscience (Projections:
The Journal for Movies & Mind). When
I first taught Psychology 488/PNP 488
in 2005, I did it in conjunction with
an international workshop sponsored
by the Philosophy-NeurosciencePsychology Program, at which psychologists, film theorists, and
neuroscientists presented recent work
and discussed questions for future
research.
Psychology 488/PNP 488 starts
from the notion that to understand
movies, people probably depend on
psychological and neural mechanisms
that they “borrow” from the mechanisms used to understand real life.
The readings use results from psychology and neuroscience to try to
better understand the experience of a
movie viewer. We also read a bit of
cognitively oriented film theory to
see how the practices and lore of film
artists bear on psychological hypothe-
ses about perception. For example,
one question we take up is how viewers process cuts, the points where two
film clips are joined. Hollywood film
lore has lots to say about how to
make a cut unobtrusive, and much of
this agrees with results from psychology and neuroscience having to do
with motion processing and
responses to visual brightness transients. Film lore also heavily emphasizes the importance of avoiding
so-called “continuity errors,” for
example when an actor’s hairstyle or
clothing doesn’t match from one clip
to the next. In this case, film practice
doesn’t comport well with the scientific results—studies by Dan Levin,
Dan Simons, and their colleagues
show that people are in fact quite
poor at detecting continuity errors,
and don’t seem particularly troubled
by them. (For fun examples of
the ubiquity and invisibility of
continuity errors, have a look at
www.continuity.com or
www.moviemistakes.com.)
This spring, I’ll be teaching the
course using a scheme I first tried last
spring in Psychology 4702, “Current
Debates in Psychology.” Each week
students write a brief reaction paper,
which they post to a discussion board
using Telesis, our course management
system (http://telesis.wustl.edu). The
papers are posted at least one day
before the class meets, and the other
participants have the opportunity to
post comments on them. Last spring,
the students and I found this process
went a long way to getting everyone
“onto the same page” when we sat
down for discussion. The cognitive
neuroscience of film is a frame
through which we can look at some
of the most exciting topics in perception, comprehension, and memory—
so there should be lots to talk about.
7
Publications from page 7
Martin, T., McDaniel, M.A., Guynn,
M.J., Houck, J., Woodruff, C. PearsonBish, J., Moses, S.N., Ki i, D., &
Tesche, C.D. (2007). Brain regions
and their dynamics in prospective
memory retrieval: A MEG study.
International Journal of
Psychophysiology, 64, 247-258.
McDaniel, M.A., Anderson, J.L.,
Derbish, M. H., & Morrisette, N.
(2007). Testing the testing effect in
the classroom. European Journal of
Cognitive Psychology, 19, 494-513.
McDaniel, M.A., Roediger, H.L.,
& McDermott, K.B. (2007).
Generalizing test-enhanced learning
from the laboratory to the classroom.
Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 14,
200-206.
Rendell, P., McDaniel, M.A., Forbes,
R., & Einstein, G. O. (2007). Agerelated effects in prospective memory
are modulated by ongoing task complexity and relation to target cue.
Aging, Neuropsychology, and Cognition,
14, 236-256.
Thomas, A.K., & McDaniel, M.A.
(2007). Metacomprehension for educationally relevant materials:
Dramatic effects of encoding-retrieval interactions. Psychonomic
Bulletin & Review, 14, 212-218.
Thomas, A.K., & McDaniel, M.A.
(2007). The negative cascade of
incongruent generative study-test
processing in memory and metacomprehension. Memory & Cognition, 35,
668-678.
Chan, J.C.K. & McDermott, K.B.
(2006). Remembering pragmatic
inferences. Applied Cognitive
Psychology, 20, 633-639.
Chan, J.C.K., McDermott, K.B., &
Roediger, H.L. (2006). Retrievalinduced facilitation: initially nontested material can benefit from prior
testing of related material. Journal of
Experimental Psychology: General, 135,
533-571.
Chan, J.C.K., & McDermott, K.B.
(2007). The testing effect in recognition memory: A dual process account.
Journal of Experimental Psychology:
Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 33,
431-437.
Szpunar, K.K., Watson, J.M., &
McDermott, K.B. (2007). Neural
substrates of envisioning the future.
Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences: USA, 104, 642-647.
Kang, S., McDermott, K.B., &
Roediger, H.L. (2007). Test format
and corrective feedback modulate the
effect of testing on memory retention. The European Journal of Cognitive
Psychology, 19, 528-558.
McDermott, K.B., & Chan, J.C.K.
(2006). Effects of repetition on memory for pragmatic inferences. Memory
& Cognition, 34, 1273-1284.
Volk, H.E., McDermott, K.B.,
Roediger, H.L. & Todd, R.D. (2006).
Genetic influences on free and cued
8
recall in long term memory tasks.
Twin Research and Human Genetics, 9,
623-631.
child with perinatal stroke. Neurology,
67:2246-2249.
Applied Cognitive Psychology, 20, 941956.
Petersen, Steve E. Integrative
Friedman, J.N.W., Oltmanns, T.F., &
Turkheimer, E. (2007). Interpersonal
perception and personality disorders:
Utilization of a thin slice approach.
Journal of Research in Personality, 41,
667-688.
Comments Learning: Multiplicity of
mechanisms. Science of Memory:
Concepts. Ed. Henry L. Roediger III,
Yadin Dudai, and Susan Fitzpatrick.
New York, NY: Oxford University
Press, 2007. 49-52.
Castel, A.D., McCabe, D.P.,
Roediger, H.L., & Heitman, J.L.
Balsis, S., Gleason, M.E.J., Woods,
C.M., & Oltmanns, T.F. (2007). An
Dosenbach, N.U.F., Fair, D.A.,
Miezin, F.M., Cohen, A.L., Wenger,
K.K., Dosenbach, R.A., Fox, M.D.,
Snyder, A.Z., Vincent, J.L., Raichle,
M.E., Schlaggar, B.L., & Petersen,
S.E. (2007) Distinct brain networks
for adaptive and stable task control
in humans. PNAS, 104(26):1107311078.
item response theory analysis of
DSM-IV personality disorder criteria
across younger and older age groups.
Psychology and Aging. 22, 171-185.
Jane, J.S., Oltmanns, T.F., South,
S.C., & Turkheimer, E. (2007). Gender
bias in diagnostic criteria for personality disorders: An item response theory analysis. Journal of Abnormal
Psychology, 116, 166-175.
Balsis, S., Zona, D.M., Eaton, N.R.,
& Oltmanns, T.F. (2006). Teaching
advanced psychopathology: A
method that promotes undergraduate
basic clinical and research experience.
Teaching of Psychology, 33,
242-245.
Pagan, J.L., Eaton, N., Turkheimer,
E., & Oltmanns, T.F. (2006). Peerreported personality problems of
research nonparticipants: Are our
samples biased? Personality and
Individual Differences, 41, 1131-1142.
Jane, J.S., Pagan, J.L., Fiedler, E.R.,
Turkheimer, E., & Oltmanns, T.F.
(2006). The interrater reliability of
the Structured Interview for DSM-IV
Personality. Comprehensive Psychiatry,
47, 368-375.
Wheeler, M.E., Shulman, G.L.,
Buckner, R.L., Miezin, F.M.,
Velanova, K., & Petersen, S.E.
(2006) Evidence for separate perceptual reactivation and search processing during remembering. Cerebral
Cortex 16:949-959.
Burgund, E.D., Schlaggar, B.L., &
Petersen, S.E. (2006) Development
of letter-specific processing: The
effect of reading ability. Acta
Psychologca, 122:99-108.
Dosenbach, N.U.F., Visscher, K.M.,
Palmer, E.D., Miezin, F.M., Wenger,
K.K., Kang, H.C., Burgund, E.D.,
Grimes, A.L., Schlaggar, B.L., &
Petersen, S.E. (2006). A core system
for the implementation of task sets.
Neuron, 50:799-812.
Van Mier, H.I., & Petersen, S.E.
(2006) Intermanual transfer effects in
sequential tactuomotor learning:
Evidence for effector independent
coding. Neuropsychologia 44:939-49.
Fair, D.A., Brown, T.T., Petersen,
S.E., & Schlaggar, B.L. (2006) A comparison of analysis of variance and
correlation methods for investigating
cognitive development with fMRI.
Developmental Neuropsychology,
30(1):531-546.
Fair, D., Brown, T., Petersen, S. &
Schlaggar, B. (2006) fMRI reveals
novel functional neuroanatomy in a
Rodebaugh, T.L., Woods, C.M., &
Heimberg, R.G., (2007). The reverse
of social anxiety is not always the
opposite: The reverse-scored items of
the Social Interaction Anxiety Scale
do not belong. Behavior Therapy, 38,
192-206.
Rodebaugh, T.L. (2007). Notes on
the journey to empirically-based classification: Some details and a broader
picture. Clinical Psychology: Science
and Practice, 14, 103-105.
Rodebaugh, T.L. (2007). The effects
of different types of goal pursuit on
experience and performance during a
stressful social task. Behaviour
Research and Therapy, 45, 951-963.
Steketee, G., Lam, J.N., Chambless,
D.L., Rodebaugh, T.L., &
McCullouch, C. E. (2007). Effects of
perceived criticism on anxiety and
depression during behavioral treatment of anxiety disorders. Behaviour
Research and Therapy, 45, 11-19.
Rodebaugh, T.L. (2006). Self-efficacy and social behavior. Behaviour
Research and Therapy, 44, 1831-1838.
Schultz, L.S., Heimberg, R.G.,
Rodebaugh, T.L., Scheier, F.R.,
Liebowitz, M.R., & Telch, M.J. (2006).
The appraisal of social concerns
scale: Psychometric validation with a
clinical sample of patients with social
anxiety disorder. Behavior Therapy,
37, 392-405.
Magee, L. Rodebaugh, T.L., &
Heimberg, R.G. (2006). Negative
evaluation is the feared response of
making others uncomfortable: A
response to Rector, Kocovski, and
Ryder. Journal of Social and Clinical
Psychology, 25, 929-936.
Meade, M.L., & Roediger, H.L.
(2006). The effect of forced recall on
illusory recollection in younger and
older adults. American Journal of
Psychology, 119. 433-462.
Roediger, H.L., & Karpicke, J.D.
(2006). The power of testing memory: Basic research and implications
for educational practice. Perspectives
on Psychological Science, 1, 181-210.
Butler, A.C., Marsh, E.J., Goode,
M.K., & Roediger, H.L. (2006).
When additional multiple-choice
lures aid versus hinder later memory.
(2007). The dark side of expertise:
Domain specific memory errors.
Psychological Science, 18, 3-5.
Roediger, H.L., & Geraci, L. (2007).
Aging and the misinformation effect:
A neuropsychological analysis. Journal
of Experimental Psychology: Learning,
Memory & Cognition, 33, 321-334.
Castel, A.D., McCabe, D.P., &
Roediger, H.L. (2007). Illusions of
competence and overestimations of
associative memory for identical
items: Evidence from judgments of
learning and encoding fluency.
Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 14.
107-111.
Karpicke, J.D., & Roediger, H.L.
(2007). Repeated retrieval during
learning is the key to long-term retention. Journal of Memory and Language,
57, 151-162.
Karpicke, J.D., & Roediger, H.L.
(2007). Expanding retrieval practice
promotes short-term retention, but
equally spaced retrieval enhances
long-term retention. Journal of
Experimental Psychology: Learning,
Memory, and Cognition, 33, 704-719.
Butler, A.C., & Roediger, H.L.
(2007). Testing improves long-term
retention in a simulated classroom
setting. European Journal of Cognitive
Psychology, 19,514-527.
Marsh, E.J., Roediger, H.L., Bjork,
A.J., & Bjork, E.L. (2007). The memorial consequences of multiple-choice
testing. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review,
14, 194-199.
Sommers, M.S. & Barcroft, J. (2007).
An integrated account of the effects of
acoustic variability in first language
and second language: Evidence from
amplitude, fundamental frequency,
and speaking rate variability. Applied
Psycholinguistics, 28, 231-249.
Barcroft, J., Sommers, M.S. & TyeMurray, N. (2007). What learning a
second language can tell us about
auditory training. Seminars in Hearing,
28, 151-161.
Storandt, M., Grant, E.A., Miller, J.P.,
& Morris, J.C. (2006). Longitudinal
course and neuropathological outcomes in original vs revised MCI and
in preMCI. Neurology, 67, 67-479.
Liscic, R.M., Storandt, M., Cairns,
N.J., & Morris, J.C. (2007). Clinical
and psychometric distinction of frontotemporal and Alzheimer's dementias. Archives of Neurology, 64,
535-540.
Brown, P.J., Woods, C.M., &
Storandt, M. (2007). Model stability
of the 15-item geriatric depression
scale across cognitive impairment and
severe depression. Psychology and
Aging, 22, 372-379.
Gurari, I., Hetts, J.J., & Strube,
M.J. (2006). Beauty in the ‘I’ of the
beholder: Effects of idealized media
portrayals on implicit self-image.
Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 28,
273-282.
cell and strokes. Neurology, 68,
2008-2011.
Strube, M.J., & Rahimi, A.M. (2006).
Celio-Doyle A., Le Grange D.,
Goldschmidt A., & Wilfley D.E.
(2007). Psychosocial and physical
impairment in overweight adolescents at high-risk for eating disorders.
Obesity, 15(1): 145-154.
“Everybody knows it’s true”: Social
dominance orientation and right wing
authoritarianism moderate false consensus for stereotypic beliefs. Journal of
Research in Personality, 40, 1038-1053.
Rahimi, A.M., & Strube, M.J. (2007).
Personal self-esteem, collective selfesteem and self-concept clarity as
moderators of the impact of perceived
consensus on stereotypes. Social
Influence, 2, 55-79.
Lehtonen, A., & Treiman, R. (2007).
Adults’ knowledge of phoneme–letter
relationships is phonology-based and
flexible. Applied Psycholinguistics, 28,
95–114.
Christ, S.E., Holt, D.D., White, D.A.,
& Green, L. (2006). Inhibitory control
in children with autism spectrum disorder. Journal of Autism and
Developmental Disorders, 37, 1155-1165.
Gomez, R.G., & White, D.A. (2006).
Using verbal fluency to detect very
mild dementia of the Alzheimer type.
Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology, 21,
771-775.
Christ, S.E., Moinuddin, A., McKinstry,
R.C., DeBaun, M., & White, D.A.
(2007). Inhibitory control in children
with frontal infarcts related to sickle
cell disease. Child Neuropsychology, 13,
132-141.
King, A.A., White, D.A., McKinstry,
R.C., Noetzel, M., & DeBaun, M.R.
(2007). A pilot randomized education
rehabilitation trial is feasible in sickle
Celio C.I., Luce K.H., Bryson S.W.,
Cunning D., Rockwell R., Wilfley
D.E., & Taylor, C.B. (2006). Use of
diet pills and other dieting aids in a
college population with high weight
and shape concerns. International
Journal of Eating Disorders, 39(6)
492-497.
Fernandez S., Malcarne V.L., Wilfley
D.E., & McQuaid J. (2006).
Correction to Fernandez, Malacme,
Wilfley, and McGuaid (2006). Cultural
Diversity & Ethnic Minority Psychology:
John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 12(4) 614.
Goldschmidt A.B., Celio-Doyle A., &
Wilfley D.E. (2007). Assessment of
binge eating in overweight youth
using a questionnaire version of the
Child Eating Disorder Examination
with instructions. International Journal
of Eating Disorders, 40(5): 460-467.
Jacobs-Pilipski M.J., Wilfley D.E.,
Crow S.J., Walsh B.T., Lilenfeld L.R.,
West D.S., Berkowitz R.I., Fairburn
C.G., & Hudson J.I. (2006). Placebo
response in binge eating disorder.
International Journal of Eating
Disorders, 40(3): 204-211.
Stein, R.I., Kenardy J., Wiseman C.V.,
Dounchis J.Z., Arnow B.A., & Wilfley
D.E. (2007). What’s driving the binge
in binge eating disorder? A prospec-
Awards and Highlights
“On choice and self control: What’s
the future worth to you?”
Mark McDaniel has a new
book with co-author Gil Einstein,
Prospective Memory: An overview and
synthesis of an emerging field, published by Sage Press in Spring
of 2007.
Tom Oltmanns was elected to
the Board of Directors of APS.
Martha Storandt received the
2007 Award for the Advancement of
Psychology and Aging, from the
Committee on Aging, American
Psychological Association.
“The award was given in recognition of Martha’s tireless and selfless
work for more than four decades to
help establish and advance the scientific study of the psychology of
aging, translate that knowledge into
practical results, and educate other
psychologists and the public on
aging issues. Her significant research
accomplishments include early
demonstration that dementia is a disease condition outside of normal
aging as well as her ongoing efforts
to differentiate across types of
dementia. She has translated her
research results to professional practice by developing neuropsychological assessments that are both easily
administered and accurate. She has
tive examination of precursors and
consequences. International Journal of
Eating Disorders, 40(3): 195-203.
Tanofsky-Kraff M., Wilfley D.E.,
Young J.F., Mufson L., Yanovski S.Z.,
Glasofer D.R., & Salaita C.G. (2007).
Preventing excessive weight gain in
adolescents: Interpersonal psychotherapy for binge eating. Obesity,
15(6): 1345-1355
Taylor C.B., Bryson S.W., Celio A.,
Luce K.H., Cunning D., Abascal L.,
Rockwell R., Field A.E., Striegel-Moore
R., Winzelberg A., & Wilfley D.E.
(2006). The adverse effect of negative
comments about weight and shape
from family and siblings on women
at high risk for eating disorders.
Pediatrics, 118(2): 731-738.
Taylor C.B., Bryson S.W., Luce K.H.,
Cunning D., Celio A., Abascal L.B.,
Rockwell R., Dev P., Winzelberg A.J.,
& Wilfley D.E. (2006). Prevention of
eating disorders in at-risk college-age
women. Archives of General Psychiatry,
63, 881-888.
Theim K.R., Tanofsky-Kraff M., Salaita
C.G., Haynos A.F., Mirch M.C.,
Razenhofer L.M., Yanofski S.Z.,
Wilfley D.E., & Yanovsky J.A.
(2007). Children’s descriptions of the
foods consumed during loss of control eating episodes. Eating Behaviors,
8(2): 258-265.
Wilfley, D.E. (2007). The TODAY
Study Group. Treatment Options for
Type 2 Diabetes in Adolescents and
Youth: A study of the comparative
efficacy of metformin alone or in
combination with rosiglitazone or
lifestyle intervention in adolescents
with type 2 diabetes. Pediatric
Diabetes, 8(2): 74-87.
Woods, C.M. (2006). Ramsay-curve
item response theory to detect and
correct for nonnormal latent variables. Psychological Methods, 11,
253-270.
Woods, C.M. (2006). Careless
responding to reverse-worded items:
Implications for confirmatory factor
analysis. Journal of Psychopathology
and Behavioral Assessment, 3, 189-194.
Woods, C.M. (2007). Confidence
intervals for gamma-family measures
of ordinal Association. Psychological
Methods, 12, 185-204.
Woods, C.M. (2007). Ramsay-curve
IRT for Likert-type data. Applied
Psychological Measurement, 31,
195-212.
Woods, C.M. (2007). Empirical histograms in IRT with ordinal data.
Educational and Psychological
Measurement, 67, 73-87.
Lee, B.R., McMmillen, J.C., Knudsen,
K., & Woods, C.M. (2007). Qualitydirected activities and barriers to
quality in social service organizations.
Administration in Social Work, 31,
67-85.
Speer, N.K., Reynolds, J.R., &
Zacks, J.M. (2007). Human brain
activity time-locked to narrative
event boundaries. Psychological
Science, 18(5), 449-455.
Zacks, J.M. & Swallow, K.M.
(2007). Event Segmentation. Current
Directions in Psychological Science, 16,
80-84(5).
from page 3
contributed to gerontology education
and the training of clinical gero-psychologists by her dedicated and caring mentoring. She helped establish
the APA journal, Psychology and
Aging, and published
Neuropsychological assessment of
dementia and depression in older adults:
A clinician’s guide in support of continuing education in aging for practicing psychologists.”—APA Aging
Issues Newsletter, November 2007,
Volume 5, Number 2.
Becky Treiman has a
Leverhulme Visiting Professorship for
the 07-08 academic year at the
University of York in England.
Jeff Zacks was elected to the
Governing Board of the Psychonomic
Society. His term began January 2008.
Post Docs
Christina Fales received a NARSAD
Young Investigator grant for two
years (2007-2009): it funds a neuroimaging study of cognitive control in
clinical anxiety.
Students
Pooja Agarwal received the
National Science Foundation
Graduate Research Fellowship in
March 2007.
Amanda Calvert has been
selected as the 2008 Experimental
Analysis of Behavior Fellowship
recipient awarded by the Society for
the Advancement of Behavior
Analysis. The EAB fellowship is
awarded annually to a doctoral student who has generated a strong program of research in the experimental
analysis of behavior and demonstrates a promising career in
academia.
Andrea Goldschmidt won the
Academy for Eating Disorders/
National Institute of Mental Health
Junior Investigator Travel Fellowship.
Anna MacKay won the 2007
Elderhostel Award, the Elderhostel K.
Patricia Cross Doctoral Research
Grant. Elderhostel awards this meritbased grant to a doctoral student
whose doctoral research will have a
significant impact on the field of lifelong or later-life learning. This award
will be used to conduct Anna’s dissertation, “Training Attentional Control
in Older Adulthood.”
Emily Porensky was a winner
of the 2007 Applied Social Issues
Internship for a project titled
Evaluating a home-based program for
dementia caregivers. The Applied
Social Issues Internship Program
encourages research that is conducted in cooperation with a community or government organization,
public interest group, or other not-
for-profit entity that will benefit
directly from the project.
Nate Rose was a recipient of an
Early Career Researcher Award from
the Cognitive Aging Conference.
Nate presented a paper at the conference in Adelaide, Australia, last
July 07.
Veronica Shead (1st place) and
Bianca Moehlmann (3rd place)
were Graduate Student winners in
the area of Social Sciences of the 12th
annual Graduate Research
Symposium, sponsored by the
Graduate Student Senate, GraduateProfessional Council, Association of
Graduate Engineering Students, and
the Student Advisor Committee.
Alfred Yu received a SMART
scholarship for the remainder of his
graduate studies. SMART is a full
tuition and living stipend package
funded by the Department of
Defense. Alfred is a civilian employee
assigned to work in the U.S. Army
Operational Test Command (OTC) at
Fort Hood in Texas. The OTC is
responsible for conducting large-scale
operational tests to evaluate warfighting systems. Alfred’s role is to be the
“cognitive guy” as much of their
focus is on the evaluation of humanmachine interactions, vehicles, GPS
devices, or command and control
interfaces.
9
Alumni Updates from page 3
mendations to the courts regarding
Northwestern University’s Department
children of divorce.
of Psychiatry and the rest of the time
research professor at the University of
docs at the Child Study Center. He’s
in private practice.
Nebraska-Lincoln Center on
an assistant professor at the NYU
Children, Families, and the Law and
School of Medicine in the Department
of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.
Mark Schaefer, PhD ’76, is currently a full-time forensic psycholo-
Edna Herdman, PhD ’80, was
Vicky Weisz, PhD ’81, is a
in teaching interns, externs, and post-
gist in a small corporation of forensic
working as an organizational psychol-
directs the Nebraska Court
psychologists working in the Boston
ogist for the federal government in a
Improvement Project.
area. His specialty is assessing sexu-
top secret classified position at one of
ally dangerous persons, risk assess-
the intelligence agencies. Edna and
Rochester, New York. She works as
2008 as director, section of
ments, custody evaluations, and
her husband retired in 2003 to
part of a multi-disciplinary diagnostic
Biostatistics and Epidemiology,
prescreening public safety officers.
Jacksonville, Florida.
assessment and treatment team for
Department of Preventive Medicine,
preschool children many of whom
at Rush University Medical Center in
fall on the autism spectrum.
Chicago. She has been on the faculty
Mark was a therapist but has almost
Andrew C. Coyne, PhD ’81.
Randi S. Joffe, PhD ’82, lives in
Julia L. Bienias, MA ’86, PhD
will begin a new position in February
phased that out, given the time
Andy’s career morphed from tradi-
and energy needed to handle the
tional academics and research into
forensic work.
mostly mental health administration.
his wife, Elizabeth Woodman, are
worked as a statistician for the Census
Eric Wish, PhD ’77, has been the
L. Eric Hallman, PhD ’83, and
at Rush since 1997. Prior to that, she
He is director of accreditation and
living in beautiful, historic
Bureau and the Bureau of Labor
director of the Center for Substance
standards (licensing, compliance, and
Hillsborough, North Carolina, where
Statistics in Washington, D.C., and
Abuse Research (CESAR) at the
related regulatory affairs) and director
he was just re-elected to the town’s
also earned her doctorate in biostatis-
University of Maryland in College
of environment of care (overseeing all
board of commissioners. He is
tics. She can be contacted via e-mail:
Park since 1990 and is a professor in
physical facilities) for the University
launching his third biotech company
[email protected].
criminology. Eric was a visiting fellow
of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey
but would rather be playing jazz
at the National Institute of Justice,
(UMDNJ)–University Behavioral
trumpet.
U.S. Dept. of Justice between 1986-90,
HealthCare. Andy is also an associate
where he designed and launched the
professor of psychiatry in the Division
maintaining a license to practice psy-
a specialist in adapting treatment for
national Drug Use Forecasting (DUF)
of Geriatric Psychiatry, at the
chology, has wasted his fine WUSTL
children with developmental disabili-
program.
UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson
education and is now director,
ties and major mental illnesses. She’s
Medical School.
Academic Affairs, Atlantic Health, in
been with the agency for 10 years and
New Jersey. In that role he has over-
has collaborated in adapting DBT and
Department of Communication
Michael Gruenthal, MD, PhD
’81, is chair of the department of neu-
sight of undergraduate, graduate, and
TF-CBT for this population. Margaret
Sciences & Disorders at the University
rology at Albany Medical Center in
continuing medical education for a
works with a therapy dog and con-
of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center
Albany, New York. Michael is married
two-hospital system in Morristown
sults with a local animal assisted ther-
in Oklahoma City.
to Laura Schweitzer, WU PhD ’79.
and Summit, New Jersey. Feel free to
apy program. She runs an APA
Their oldest son graduated from
contact Jeff at [email protected].
approved pre-doctoral internship pro-
Blas Espinoza-Varas, PhD ’78,
is associate professor in the
Betsy A. Gard, PhD ’78, is cur-
Jeff Levine, PhD ’83, while still
Margaret Charlton, PhD ’86, is
working for the Aurora (Colorado)
Community Mental Health Center as
gram for clinical psychologists, plus
rently past-president of the Georgia
Washington U. in May ’07 with a
Psychological Association. She is chair
degree in biomedical engineering/sys-
vice president of Boys & Girls Town
practicum placements for psychology
of the Georgia Disaster Response
tems science. Their youngest son is a
of Missouri, a Midwest children’s
trainees at different levels.
Network, a joint program with the
junior at Washington U. majoring
services agency specializing in the
American Psychological Association
in physics.
Bill Robiner, PhD ’81, recently
Phillury Platte, MA ’83, is senior
Robert Robbins, MA ’86, is cur-
treatment of children with severe
rently a clinical psychologist in pri-
behavior and emotional disorders.
vate practice, specializing in children
Association. Betsy lives with her hus-
was promoted to professor in the
Phillury lives in St. Louis with her
and families. He lives with his family
band and 17-year-old son in Sandy
Department of Medicine at the
husband, Joe Antosek. Her son is a
in Rochester, New York.
Springs, Georgia. Their two older
University of Minnesota Medical
freshman at Tulane University.
daughters are in San Jose and
School and received an award from
Pittsburg.
the Association of Psychology
vate practice in Chicago and is busy
Belmont Center in Philadelphia and
Postdoctoral and Internship Centers
raising two teenagers. In the past
has a small private practice. Over the
is chief academic officer at Bassett
(APPIC), recognizing his work on
Amy has worked at two area hospitals
years, she received rabbinic ordina-
HealthCare in Cooperstown,
behalf of psychology internship train-
and taught as a part-time faculty
tion from the Reconstructionist
New York.
ing. Bill co-chaired this year’s confer-
member at several universities.
Rabbinical College outside of
and the Georgia Psychological
Laura Schweitzer, PhD ’79,
ence of the Association of
’80s
Amy Newman, PhD ’84, is in pri-
Alan Tomkins, PhD ’84, has
Marsha Pik-Nathan, PhD ’87, is
currently a staff psychologist at
Philadelphia. Marsha lives in Elkins
Psychologists in Academic Health
been directing the University of
Park, Pennsylvania, with her three
Shirley R. Baron, PhD ’80, is in
Centers (APAHC), and he was elected
Nebraska Public Policy Center since
children, Shira (15), Eitana (11),
Chicago practicing half time in the
to president-elect for the Association
1998. Prior to starting the center,
and Noah (8).
Sex and Marital Therapy Program at
of Psychologists in Academic Health
Alan was a faculty member in UNL’s
Centers.
Law/Psychology Program.
Eric Van Denburg, PhD ’84, is
Susan Boland, PhD ’88, is associate professor teaching psychology at
Lock Haven University of
the clinical psychology internship
Pennsylvania (LHUP). Susan has been
director of Jesse Brown VAMC in
at LHUP since 1990 where she met
Chicago, Illinois. Eric has 20 years in
her husband, Dr. John Reid, who
the VA system.
teaches physics.
Mark A. Cook, PhD ’85, his wife,
Ruth Davies Sulser, PhD ’88, is
Victoria, and their daughter Molly
a clinical psychologist at the VA in St.
(age 9), recently traveled to
Louis in the areas of Extended
St. Petersburg, Russia, to complete the
care/Geriatrics and OEF/OIF
adoption of an infant girl whom they
Polytrauma survivors.
named Madison Katherine Cook.
Mark is in private practice in St. Louis
County.
Steve Kurtz, PhD ’85, is married
10
Anthony Delitto, PhD ’90, is
currently professor and chair,
to Bonnie Kurtz (Washington U.,
Department of Physical Therapy,
MA ’81) coming on 30 years! They
School of Health and Rehabilitation
have 2 fabulous daughters, 19 and 23
Sciences, at the University of
years old. Steve is the clinical director
Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
of the NYU Child Study Center’s
2007-08 Psychology Honors students from left to right: Elias Wan, Ceyla Erhan, Laura
Wolkoff, Honors Director Professor Mitch Sommers, Joshua Ellman, Tanya Antonini,
Mindy Krischer, and Matthew Riedel.
’90s
James R. Bailey, PhD ’91.
ADHD Institute and co-director of
James’s recent book, Handbook of
their Selective Mutism Program. Steve
Organizational and Managerial
earned his ABPP Diplomate along the
Wisdom, won the European Academy
way and is active in AABT/ABCT and
of Management Best New Book
year he is taking a leave from that
ventions for women with physical
tinue to teach and continue her
Amazon.com best-seller list. He
position to serve as the assistant to the
disabilities.
research after leaving Pennsylvania.
received the Outstanding Educator
provost and interim director of the
Dean D. VonDras, PhD ’93, is a
Award from George Washington
Office of Assessment, Information,
tenured associate professor with joint
Miri Hardy (Goldstein), PhD
’96, recently moved to the western
University School of Business for three
and Analysis.
appointments in the Psychology and
coast of Puerto Rico with her husband
Human Development Programs at the
where they opened a pottery studio.
Award and spent four weeks on the
of the last four years, and was named
Bradley Frank, PhD ’92, and his
one of the top 10 executive educators
wife, Laura, have been married for 13
University of Wisconsin-Green Bay.
Miri can be reached at miri@rincon-
in the world by the International
years and have three children, Kyle-
He is active in life-span oriented
pottery.com.
Council for Executive Education. Most
10, Sara-7, and Sam-7. Bradley has
research, examining self-diagnostic
importantly, James has a three-
remained in Houston and is a partner
perceptions of age-associated illness,
ate professor in the School of Public
month-old son named Ian Joshua
in the private practice that he entered
and exploring effects of everyday
Health and Director of the Behavioral
Bailey.
when he completed his Baylor College
stress on memory performance. Dean
Science Laboratory at the University
Kittie Verdolini Abbott, PhD
’91. After faculty appointments in
of Medicine internship. When not at
is currently chair of the executive
of South Carolina. She and her hus-
work, Bradley is usually at one of the
committee of the Faculty Senate and
band, Jeff Schatz (also a Washington
speech pathology and audiology/oto-
kids’ baseball games, art classes, etc.
chair of the Instructional
U. alum, see below), have a 21-
Development Council. He and his
month-old son who is helping to
keep them busy and fully entertained.
laryngology at the University of Iowa
John Yost, PhD ’92, is an associ-
Sara Wilcox, PhD ’96, is associ-
(1990-1995) and Harvard Medical
ate professor of psychology at John
wife, Mary Elizabeth, are expecting a
School (1995-2000), Kittie has been on
Carroll University, in the eastern sub-
new baby on March 17, 2008.
the faculty of Communication Science
urbs of Cleveland, Ohio. John lives in
and Disorders at the University of
Bainbridge Township, Ohio, with his
Rebecca’s lab at the University of
of Psychology at the University of
Pittsburgh. She is currently full profes-
wife, Mia, stepson, Alex (11), and
Alabama continues to focus on inter-
Toronto. Her lab investigates age-
sor and editor for speech for the
3-year-old twin sons, Michael and
ventions for older adults and their
based stereotyping and prejudice,
Journal of Speech-Language, Hearing
Maximus (Max).
families facing decisions about care
both from the perceiver’s and the tar-
Beverly Field, PhD ’93, is an
Rebecca S. Allen, PhD ’94.
Alison Chasteen, PhD ’97, is an
associate professor in the Department
near the end of life. She is interested
get’s perspective. Alison’s e-mail is
assistant professor in the Departments
in intergenerational interventions
[email protected].
of Anesthesiology and Psychiatry at
and applied decision-making and has
a small group practice in Tucson, and
the Washington University School of
started to examine end-of-life deci-
an associate professor in the
would love to hear from any students
Medicine where she works in the area
sions among older prisoners.
Department of Psychology at the
or faculty visiting the area at
of pain management. Her e-mail is
[email protected].
Gayle Brosnan-Watters, PhD
’96, currently assistant professor of
University of South Carolina. Jeff’s
Southwest Neuropsychology
Associates, 2650 N. Wyatt Dr., Tucson,
Susan Robinson-Whelen, PhD
’93, is working at Baylor College of
psychology at Slippery Rock
faculty.
Medicine’s Center for Research on
tenure last year. Gayle is married to
corporate finance after leaving
served as chair of the Psychology,
Women with Disabilities (CROWD).
Otis Kinney, who lives in Sun Lakes,
Washington U. to work at a Fortune
Sociology, and Counseling
The research primary focuses on men-
Arizona. She is planning to retire soon
200 company where the analytic and
Department at Northwest Missouri
tal health and health promotion inter-
and join him there (Gayle was 50
quantitative training received from
Research. Kittie serves as standing
reviewer on the NIH Study Section.
Lauri Yablick, PhD ’91, is part of
AZ 85712.
Douglas N. Dunham, PhD ’92,
University in Pennsylvania, achieved
Jeff Schatz, PhD ’97, is currently
wife, Sara Wilcox, is also on USC’s
Wanjiang Du, MA ’98, went into
when she received her PhD from
State University from 2005-07. This
continued on page 12
Washington U.), and hopes to con-
Dear Friend of the Department of
Psychology at Washington University,
We have written A History of
To donate to the Psychology Gift Fund, please fill out the form
the Department of Psychology at
below, cut out and mail your contribution to: Arts & Sciences
Washington University: 1924-
Development Office, Campus Box 1210, One Brookings Drive,
2006. This book covers events,
St. Louis, MO 63130.
people, and locations in our
department from its founding
Thank you,
in 1924 through the current
day. Whatever your connection to psychology at
Washington University, you
should find something of interest in this book. You may
Randy J. Larsen, Ph.D.
William R. Stuckenberg Professor of Human Values and
Chair, Department of Psychology
obtain a copy of this book by
making a $50 donation to the
My gift is: $_______________ to the Psychology Gift Fund
Psychology Gift Fund.
Enclosed is my check in the amount of $_______________ or
Several of you have already
£ Visa
made contributions to the
Psychology Gift Fund. These
£ MasterCard
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_________________________________________________________________
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funds provide the department
with flexible resources that we can use in creative ways to improve the
_________________________________________________________________
Signature
experiences of the students, faculty, and staff in Psychology. For example,
we use these funds to provide research awards to students, teaching awards
Name ___________________________________________________________
to faculty, and to fund student travel to scientific conferences. We have
Home Address ___________________________________________________
also drawn on these funds to purchase computers for student use and to
buy video recording equipment for use at our Psychological Services Clinic
City ___________________________________ State _____ Zip___________
for student training.
Home Phone (
The Psychology Gift Fund is an important and flexible resource for us to
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make the Psychology Department a more vibrant and interesting place for
all. Please consider making a donation to this fund and, in return, obtain-
) _______________________________________________
Year of Graduation _______________________________________________
ing a copy of our recently completed A History of the Department of
Degree __________________________________________________________
Psychology: 1924-2006.
£ Please do not share my information
11
Keeping It All in the Air: A Profile of Graduate Student Steve Balsis
By Brian Carpenter
T
he world record for juggling
Association. In addition, Steve began
tribution, and his dissertation
running chainsaws is 86 suc-
teaching “Psychology of Personality”
research promises to yield much
and “Abnormal Psychology.”
more. In fact, Steve’s work in this
cessful catches. (If you were wonder-
Soon Steve completed another
ing, “successful” means the
area has been supported by a grant
chainsaws don’t hit the ground and
major milestone in his graduate train-
from the National Institute of
all limbs are preserved.) Students in
ing: passing his comprehensive exam-
Mental Health, further validation of
the graduate program in psychology
inations, which involves reading and
his potential as a scholar.
are not doing a lot with actual chain-
integrating a vast amount of informa-
saws, but they are doing their own
tion in preparation for a two-hour
on this groundbreaking research, he
challenging juggling act as they
oral examination, grilled by three fac-
moved to Houston, got married, and
progress through their training. Steve
ulty who were free to ask Steve just
had a baby.
Balsis, a graduate student in the clini-
about any question in psychology to
cal psychology program, is one example of a student who has learned to
Steve Balsis
along with seeing his weekly clients.
keep many things in the air at once.
Steve came to Washington
University in 2001, after completing
his BA at the College of the Holy
Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts
and then working as a research assistant for two years at Brown
University’s sleep research lab. Like
most first-year students, Steve began
his career here immersed in course
work — in his case, statistics, clinical
assessment, advanced psychopathology, and a course in gerontology, the
focus of his research and clinical
interests. But it was in the second
year that the juggling really began.
In addition to more course work—
neuropsychological assessment and
theory and techniques of psychotherapy—Steve began seeing clients for
individual psychotherapy at the
But wait, there’s more! Also at this
time Steve was developing a research
idea for his master’s research project.
This was a project Steve designed
himself, focused on the patronizing,
baby-talk-like speech that is sometimes used with older adults. (“C’mon
over here honey and let’s get you to
take these pills for me, OK sweetie?”)
In this project Steve was interested in
exploring how people react when
they see others using that kind of
“elderspeak” with older adults.
Results from his project suggested
that both the people who use elderspeak and the people who are its targets are judged to be less competent
and more impaired. A summary of his
research appeared in the Clinical
Gerontologist, the first of Steve’s many
scientific publications.
Department’s Psychological Services
Center (PSC). The PSC fulfills two
important roles: it gives students an
opportunity to learn and practice
their psychotherapy skills under the
supervision of a licensed psychologist, and it provides low-cost psychotherapy services to the St. Louis
community. So, Steve was balancing
all the usual reading and writing,
In his third year, Steve picked up
more clinical experiences in a wide
variety of settings, on top of more
course work and research. He completed a practicum at the St. Louis
Veterans Affairs Medical Center
(that’s 10 hours a week for an entire
academic year, for those of you who
are counting) and began running support groups at the Alzheimer’s
Oh, and while he’s been working
In the past year, Steve has been
test the depth and breadth of his aca-
working as a clinical psychology
demic, research, and clinical prepara-
intern at the Houston Veterans
tion. Another gold star for Steve, and
Affairs Medical Center. This full-year,
he was next on to his dissertation.
full-time clinical experience is
Steve’s interests turned to person-
designed to round out Steve’s clinical
ality disorders in older adults, an
training, and it’s given him the
underresearched area in clinical
opportunity to establish professional
gerontology but one with implica-
connections in Texas. That’s been
tions for the health of older adults.
useful because next fall he will start
So Steve joined Tom Oltmanns, the
as an assistant professor in the
Edgar James Swift Professor of
Psychology Department at Texas
Psychology at Washington U., who is
A&M University, joining his wife,
a widely recognized expert in person-
Lisa Geraci, a cognitive psychologist
ality research.
and graduate of the program at
The criteria used to diagnose per-
Washington U., who is also an assis-
sonality disorders have been the
tant professor there. Both are getting
focus of debate within psychology for
their own hands-on training in
many reasons. One criticism is that
developmental psychology with the
the list of criteria may not take into
recent birth of their precious and
account real differences across age
precocious son, Owen.
groups. For instance, one of the diag-
So let’s review. Extensive course
nostic items for avoidant personality
work, intensive clinical experiences,
disorder asks about interpersonal dif-
rigorous research training. Add to
ficulties on the job, a criterion not
that moving to a new city, starting a
relevant for retired older adults.
new job, gaining a spouse, and wel-
Steve’s research focuses on deter-
coming a baby. Steve makes it all
mining whether the current diagnos-
look easy. And by comparison,
tic criteria are valid for older adults
chainsaws don’t look so hard.
and whether (and what) criteria
might be more useful. Steve’s publications in this area, in journals such as
the American Journal of Geriatric
Psychiatry and Psychology and Aging,
have already made an important con-
Alumni Updates from page 11
psychology greatly helped his career.
Wanjiang is currently a managing
director at Ardent Financial Services,
LLC, a new and quickly growing
education finance company that
focuses on providing low-cost private
student loans.
Barbara Mazer Gross, MA ’99,
and John Gross (LA ’98) married in
2000 and are living in St. Petersburg,
Florida, where John has a sports medicine/family medicine practice and
Barbara is the director of development for a performing arts center.
Saera Khan, PhD ’99, is an associate professor of social psychology at
the University of San Francisco. In
their spare time, she and her husband, Matt, chase after their two
young boys, Raihan and Samad.
12
’00s
Gregg Belle, PhD ’01, is a forensic
psychologist in Massachusetts. For six
years Gregg worked at Bridgewater
State Hospital conducting various
forensic assessments of mentally ill
criminals and sex offenders. In August
2007, he joined Forensic Health
Services, Inc. to become the Program
Manager of a contract with the
Massachusetts Department of
Corrections for sex offender evaluations at the Massachusetts Treatment
Center for the sexually dangerous.
Ann Pearman, PhD ’03, is assistant professor in the Gerontology
Institute with a joint appointment in
Psychology at Georgia State
University in Atlanta. Ann recently
received a GSU Internal Grant to fund
a project on Neuroticism and
Program at the Western Interstate
Memory in Young and Older Adults.
Commission for Higher Education.
Sherry Beaudreau, PhD ’05,
Nicole will be working in the area of
graduated from the joint fellowship
mental health policy research, assess-
program of the Mental Illness
ing the mental health needs of com-
Research, Education, and Clinical
munities in the Western United States
Center (MIRECC) through Stanford
and helping to make sure there is an
University and the Palo Alto VA.
adequately trained workforce to meet
Sherry is currently an instructor in
those needs.
research through the Department of
Jen Breneiser, PhD ’07, accepted
Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at
an assistant professor position at
Stanford University School of
Valdosta State University (GA) in the
Medicine and associate director of the
Department of Psychology and
MIRECC Hubsite Fellowship program.
Counseling. Jen was married to
She spends her free time with her
Quinton Campbell in October 2007.
husband, two cats, and learning to
play guitar.
Nicole Speer, PhD ’05, started a
new job in December ’07 as a research
associate in the Mental Health
50 Years and Counting: An Amazing Success Story
By Dave Balota
D
uring these times of reduced
review, a proposal with Bunch as
given in recognition of outstanding
funding, it is appropriate that
Psychology
Department Receives
New Training Grant
Principal Investigator, PI, was submit-
research in the field of gerontology.
the Department takes pride as having
ted to the Aging Program of the
Bunch returned as PI for the training
one of the oldest (if not the oldest)
National Institute of Child Health
grant after Kleemeier died.
continuously running training grant
and Human Development and
in the country.
approved in 1958 as the first training
Jack Botwinick from Duke University.
Medical Sciences. The title of the
grant dedicated to study aging in a
He became director of the training
training grant is “Interface of
ing grant developed out of the recog-
psychology department in the coun-
grant in 1971 and changed its name
Psychology, Neuroscience, and
nition by Marion Bunch, chairman of
try. The grant initially only supported
to Aging and Development. Jack was
Genetics” or IPNG. Its goal is to
the Psychology Department in the
graduate students but began to sup-
known for his work in learning and
develop basic behavioral scientists
’50s, that as the population ages there
port postdoctoral fellows in 1969.
memory and was earned many
with rigorous broad-based training
The Aging and Development train-
would be a burgeoning need to
The Department then recruited
The first major appointment in the
T
his year the Psychology
Department received a new
training grant from the
National Institute of General
awards including the Kleemeier and
in two biomedical sciences—
understand the psychology of aging.
new program was Professor Robert W.
Brookdale awards for distinguished
neuroscience and genetics.
At the time, the Department had
Kleemeier, who took over as PI on the
contributions to gerontology.
strengths in experimental psychology
training grant, until his death at age
Botwinick died in 2006 but left his
dents with an interest in under-
with emphasis on learning and mem-
51 in 1966. Kleemeier was recognized
mark through his research and the
standing human behavior from a
ory. Bunch thought it was “a natural”
for his contributions to the area of
mentoring of students.
biomedical perspective. The train-
to extend the study of these areas to
social gerontology, and the presti-
older adults. After considerable
gious Robert Kleemeier Award is still
Although Kleemeier and Botwinick
were outside faculty recruited to
continued on page 14
Trainees are pre-doctoral stu-
ing program includes equal participation from faculty in Psychology,
Neuroscience, and Genetics. The
training program provides students
with systematic exposure to the
Psychology Department Grant Funding
July 1, 2006–December 31, 2007
behavioral perspectives from psychology, integrated with biomedical perspectives from systems and
computational neuroscience along
with behavioral, molecular, and sta-
Principal
Investigator
Grant Title
Balota, David
Aging & Development Training
National Institutes of Health/Ruth L. Kirschstein
National Research Service Award (NRSA)
Barch, Deanna
An Investigation of the Role of Memory
Encoding Strategies in Age Related Changes
in Functional Activity in the Prefrontal
Cortex: Processing of Words and Pictures
The McDonnell Center for Higher Brain Function
Brain-Based Measures for the Treatment
Development of Impaired Cognition in
Schizophrenia
National Institutes of Health
The Developmental Neurobiology of
Working and Long Term Memory Deficits
as a Risk Factor for Schizophrenia and
Depression (NARSAD)
National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia
and Depression (NARSAD)
Boyer, Pascal
Ritual Behavior and the Dynamics of
Religious Commitment
Templeton Advanced Research Program of the
Metanexus Institute on Religion and Science
interested in research crossing tradi-
Braver, Todd
Neuroeconomics of Age Related Changes
in Cognitive Control
National Institutes of Health
between psychology and two of the
Dobbins, Ian
Functional Neuroimaging of Strategic
Retrieval Processes
National Institutes of Health
Reactive Cognitive Control & Emotion
Dysregulation in Generalized
Anxiety Disorder
National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia
and Depression (NARSAD)
Green, Leonard
Reward Discounting by Humans & Animals
National Institutes of Health
Jacoby, Larry
Quality Control in Memory Retrieval
and Reporting
United States-Israel Binational Science
Foundation
Larsen, Randy
Emotional Aging: Preservation of Function
in the Elderly and Alzheimer’s Patients
National Institutes of Health
Larsen, Randy
Training at the Interface of Psychology,
Neuroscience and Genetics
National Institutes of Health/Ruth L. Kirschstein
National Research Service Award (NRSA)
MacKay, Anna
Training Attentional Control in
Older Adulthood
Elderhostel K. Patricia Cross Doctoral Research
Grant
uate students for two years of inter-
McDermott, Kathleen
Neural Substrates of Episodic Future Thought
in Schizophrenia
National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia
and Depression (NARSAD)
investigator who obtained and
Morey, Candice
Domain-General Working Memory
and Cognitive Control in the
Prefrontal Cortex
Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service
Award (NRSA)
Randy Larsen.
Oltmanns, Thomas
Personality, Health & Transitions
In Late Life
National Institutes of Health
Porensky, Emily
Memory Care Evaluation Project
Society for the Psychological Study of
Social Issues
Roediger, Roddy
Test-Enhanced Learning in the Classroom
Institute of European Studies (IES)/U.S.
Department Of Energy (DOE)
Treiman, Rebecca
Children’s Early Knowledge of Letters
and Spelling Across Languages
National Institutes of Health
Barch, Deanna
Barch, Deanna
Fales, Christina
Funding Organization
tistical genetics. The goal is to train
young scientists who are able to
apply concepts and methods from
basic biomedical sciences to the
study of behavioral phenomenon,
such as memory, attention, decision making, and other cognitive
functions, behavioral disorders
such as schizophrenia, alcoholism,
and problems with emotion regulation and basic social phenomenon
such as personality, attitudes, and
social cognition.
This training program will provide benefits to trainees who are
tional academic boundaries
most important and exciting biomedical sciences—neuroscience and
genetics. Educational opportunities
of this kind are rare, and the
unique nature of this program will
make its graduates attractive candidates for faculty positions in biobehavioral programs at other
universities. There will also be benefits to the fields of neuroscience
and genetics research, in which
new lines of behavioral investigation will be opened. The training
grant provides support for five graddisciplinary training. The principal
manages the training grant is
13
Nathan Dardick from page 1
detecting lies and misdirection in
this time. “I also liked the scientific
they are made happy by equivalent
does not correlate with the success of
depositions. Nate was so successful
and analytic part of psychology,” he
gains. For example, investors typi-
those decisions. There is also the
that he started his own law firm in
says, crediting these skills with giving
cally consider the loss of $1 about
“familiarity/liking” effect, such that
1977. At the same time, he bought a
him a basis for sound decision-mak-
twice as painful as the pleasure
people will prefer to invest in a com-
seat for himself on the Mid-America
ing in this area.
received from a $1 gain.
pany they are familiar with. For
Commodities Exchange, and he spent
These days Nate has trimmed his
The same principle (“bad is
example, there is some evidence that
some time periodically in the pits
investment company pretty much
stronger than good”) has been found
investment analysts who visit a com-
trading in commodities. Here his
into a one-man operation. “I sit in
in marital satisfaction research, where
pany develop more confidence in
background in probability theory, the
front of a laptop in my home on
John Gottman has found that one
their stock picking skill involving that
basis of psychological statistics,
Captiva Island. When I look up I
bad argument with your spouse needs
company, even though there is no
served him well.
often see dolphins playing out in the
to be balanced by five good interac-
evidence to support this increased
confidence.
Gulf of Mexico,” he
tions in order for a
modity investments prospered.
reports. Nate is cur-
marriage to be
However, in 1983 he became seri-
rently focused on the
deemed satisfying
ples of the new field of behavioral
ously overextended on a soybean
derivatives market, an
over the long term.
finance that Nate finds relevant in his
futures contract. “I lost everything I
exotic investment
The point is that bad
investment activities. Nate has
owned except my home and my law
arena that few people
events, like stock
encouraged the Psychology
firm,” he reports. “I had to start
understand and even
losses or arguments,
Department to push for more
over.” He refocused his energy on
fewer are good at. But
loom larger than
research and teaching in the area of
legal work and over the next decade
it is here, Nate says,
good events.
behavioral finance, mainly because of
his firm handled over 800 corporate
that he finds the most pure applica-
Another principle of behavioral
its broad applicability to the real
debt restructuring cases. Meanwhile
tion of psychology. “This market is
finance that Nate finds useful is that
world. “Don’t let the economics
his interest in investing was restricted
not rational,” he says, “instead, in the
people respond differently to equiva-
department claim this area,” he
to the safer arena of municipal bonds.
short term, it is pushed and pulled by
lent situations depending on whether
advised, in part based on his experi-
He also became chief operating officer
psychological forces, such as fear and
they are presented in the context of
ence as a former economics major as
of a conglomerate corporation at this
greed and loss aversion.”
losses or gains, a phenomenon
well as his enthusiasm for psychology
Both his law firm and his com-
“In psychology I
learned how to interact
with poeple, how to
motivate them. ”
These are just some of the princi-
known as the “framing effect.” For
in general. This may be an area where
reports, and he became very success-
field known as “behavioral finance,”
example, an investor could be
psychology and economics could
ful for a second time in his life
time. “I worked day and night,” he
Nate has become a student of the
a new but rapidly growing area of
advised to sell now to “lock in gains”
work together in an interdisciplinary
In 1996 Nate retired from his law
psychology. This field has already
or to sell now to “avoid potential
fashion.
firm and started his career over for a
established a few basic principles,
future loses.” Researchers have also
third time by creating an investment
some of which Nate finds useful as
found that people are willing to take
youngest child, Justin, graduated
company. In the early years he ran it
the basis for his investing strategy.
more risks to avoid losses than they
from Washington University in 2006
as a hedge fund, where he focused on
For example, people place different
are to realize gains. Faced with sure
with a degree in psychology. Like his
buying underperforming companies
weights on prospective gains and
gain, most investors become risk-
father, Justin is now trading com-
and restructuring them to become
losses, the implications of which form
averse, but faced with sure loss,
modity futures in Chicago. Nate
profitable. “In psychology I learned
the basis of “prospect theory” (the
investors become wild risk-takers.
returned to visit his alma mater in
how to interact with people, how to
work for which psychologist Dan
motivate them,” says Nate. This
Kahneman won a Nobel Prize in eco-
the “fundamental attribution error”
Randy Larsen, the chair of
translated into strong negotiation
nomics). Individuals are much more
where people see their own decisions
Psychology, and toured the
skills, which served him well during
distressed by prospective losses than
as rational and based on information,
Psychology Building. That meeting
whereas they attribute the decisions
formed the basis of this article. Nate
of others to their dispositions or
has been a strong supporter of
other personal characteristics.
Washington U. throughout his career,
Lindsay Casmaer: Miss Missouri
and Research Assistant at
Washington University
14
Consequently, people are often
overconfident in their own decisions,
even when the information they
have may be irrelevant to the decision. A great deal of trading volume is
based on this overconfidence effect,
November 2007, when he met with
and articles on his contributions to
the University can be found at:
http://news-info.wustl.edu/news/
page/normal/7526.html and
http://www.wustl.edu/tour/
danforth/dardick-house.html
even though the level of investor
confidence in investment decisions
L
indsay Casmaer is a research
assistant in Dr. Denise Head’s
lab. Though only one year in
“pageant life,” Lindsay won the Miss
Missouri title, which qualified her to
compete in the Miss America pageant
this past January. Her talent for the
competition was Ballet en Pointe.
As a research assistant, Lindsay is
involved in structural and functional
MRI data acquisition and manual
and automated MRI-based brain morphometry for research investigations
on Alzheimer’s disease and nondemented aging. She is also involved in
MRI and PET data acquisition for a
study investigating amyloid deposition in adult children of individuals
with and without Alzheimer’s disease.
Lindsay is planning eventually to
obtain a Doctorate of Medicine and
to practice women’s health with an
emphasis on preventative medicine.
Another principle is a version of
Nate has four children and his
50 Years and Counting from page 13
spearhead the work in gerontology, it
example, the article about Jane Berry
was the “home-grown” Martha
in this issue), although the two are
Storandt (see article about Martha in
highly intertwined. Our recent
this issue) who took the program to
trainees are tenured or are holding
another level. Martha was a student
tenure-track positions at such institu-
of Kleemeier’s and was also mentored
tions as Boston College, Dartmouth
by Botwinick. Martha took over the
University, Davidson College,
training grant in 1984 and for 23
Georgia Tech University, University
Lindsay Casmaer
years led the program with amaz-
of Alabama, University of Michigan,
She is also working with the “Training
the Trainers” program in Philadelphia
developing a working infrastructure
for computer classes within underserved communities and promoting
internet safety awareness through
education.
ingly clear direction. This past year
University of Kansas, among many
we were awarded another five years
others. We are looking forward to
of funding, with myself as PI. I obvi-
seeing many of our past students and
ously have some tough acts to follow.
postdocs at our 50th year celebration
The success of a training grant is
not reflected by its longevity but by
the success of its trainees (see, for
that will be held at Washington
University in June 2008.
Dr. Herman T. Blumenthal (1913-2007)
St. Louis Post-Dispatch 11/8/07
D
r. Herman T. Blumenthal’s
focus was always on diseases
that ail the aged. Even into his 90s,
Dr. Blumenthal continued that
research. Dr. Blumenthal, a leading
gerontologist and a founder of the
Gerontological Society of America,
died Monday, Nov. 5, 2007, of cardiac arrest. He was 94 and lived in
St. Louis.
He was widely admired in the
St. Louis medical community for his
skills as a pathologist, and nationally
and internationally for his work as a
researcher.
Blumenthal maintained a research
appointment at Washington
University for more than half a century. Marion Bunch recruited him to
teach biology when building the
Psychology Department. For nearly
four decades, he worked with Dr.
B.N. Premachandra on aging phenomena that occurs in the endocrine
system.
Blumenthal published broadly and
widely. His more than 200 research
papers, reviews, and book chapters
have applied an aging perspective to
issues in endocrinology, cancer, vas-
cular disease, and neurobiology. Like
many bio-gerontologists, Blumenthal
drew a distinction between intrinsic
and extrinsic factors, but he went on
to argue that if environmental risk
factors were eliminated, there would
still be disease derived from the
intrinsic aging phenomena. He also
had written on the future of health
care planning in terms of population
aging. This latter interest stemmed
from his appointment to the
Department of Community Medicine
at Saint Louis University School of
Medicine, in addition to being a
research professor in gerontology at
Washington University. He was particularly interested in chronic diseases in patients with dementia and
cardiovascular disease not associated
with risk factors.
In 1956, Time magazine reported
on Dr. Blumenthal’s study that found
emotional stress was the main cause
of hardening of the arteries (arteriosclerosis), then the nation’s No. 1
killer among diseases. At that time,
most researchers and practicing specialists believed that arteriosclerosis
came mainly from excess amounts of
cholesterol. Dr. Blumenthal’s report,
supported by 10 years of research,
detailed fluctuating blood pressure
that worked against the walls of
the arteries, caused lesions and
hardening.
Teaching also was a passion of Dr.
Blumenthal’s. Throughout the years,
he had many students and fellows in
his laboratory. He also taught graduate seminars in gerontology in the
Washington University Department
of Psychology and seminars in community medicine at the Saint Louis
University School of Medicine.
“He was amazing,” said Martha
Storandt, professor of psychology at
Washington University. “I was a
graduate student when he was teaching. At that time, we really needed
someone who could give us the biological process of aging that went
with the study of psychology. He was
so committed to his field.”
Dr. Blumenthal grew up in
Rahway, N.J., and received his undergraduate degree from Rutgers
University. He received a master’s
degree from the University of
Pennsylvania and a doctorate in
pathology and
a medical
degree,
both from
Washington
University.
He served
in the Army in
World War II
and was
assigned to a
Dr. Herman J.
military hospiBlumenthal
tal in Calcutta,
India. He returned to St. Louis to
teach at Saint Louis University
School of Medicine and later headed
the Pathology Laboratory at Jewish
Hospital.
In addition to his dedication to
his field of medicine, Dr. Blumenthal
was active in peace and social justice
movements. His causes included
nuclear disarmament and, most
recently, universal health insurance.
Dr. Blumenthal’s first wife,
Eleonore Gottlieb Blumenthal, died
in 1972. He married Dr. Margaret
Phillips in 1974.
accept her critique of measurement
reliability.
This paper has
since become
a citation classic and is
widely used in
graduate
Jane Loevinger
courses.
Loevinger
then joined her husband at Los
Alamos, where their two children
were born. After the second atomic
bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, her
husband’s work at Los Alamos was
complete and he accepted a position
in the Chemistry Department at
Washington University in St. Louis.
In St. Louis, Loevinger did some
part-time teaching for the Psychology
Department, plus worked on various
Air Force grants. She described this
period as the “dark days” of her
career, feeling the disadvantages of
her gender in securing professional
employment, as well as the social
pressures to be a “good” wife and
mother. She decided to abandon her
unfulfilling part-time work to pursue
her own research interests in
women’s experiences. Among the
first to focus on women as a demographic, Loevinger obtained funding
from the National Institute of Mental
Health. She developed measures of
women’s attitudes and formed a
research group that focused on the
problems facing mothers and
women, in all periods of life.
The Psychology Department at
Washington University finally recognized her and her achievements in
1961 when she was appointed
research associate professor in psychology. She was promoted to a
tenured full professor position in
1973, and in 1985 became the inaugural holder of the William R.
Stuckenberg Professorship in Human
Values. Stuckenberg was a St. Louis
businessman who had strong interests in moral and ethical issues.
Loevinger’s work, as well as her character, so impressed him that he
endowed this professorship explicitly
for her. In 1988 Loevinger transitioned to emeritus status, though she
maintained a research group and
continued to publish papers and kept
a hand in professional activities.
In addition to her professional
achievements, Loevinger also had a
lasting impact on those who knew
her. This is described by Robert
Kegan (1998), who wrote about
Loevinger’s visits to Harvard in the
1970s. “Jane Loevinger’s visits were
anticipated with something like the
eagerness, curiosity, and trepidation
a family might have awaiting the
arrival of an outspoken, stern but
loving aunt whose tough-minded
integrity concealed a sympathetic
heart. She would leave a trail of overturned vanity in her wake, and then
months later you would hear from a
colleague how highly she spoke of
what you were up to” (p.39).
Loevinger made her own way, and
she left her mark on many people as
well as the entire field.
Jane Loevinger (1918-2008)
By Randy J. Larsen
J
ane Loevinger died unexpectedly on Jan. 4, 2008. She was
well-known for her work in psychometrics, her theory of ego development, and her widely used
assessment instrument, the
Washington University Sentence
Completion Test. Loevinger was a
self-proclaimed iconoclast and perennial skeptic within the fields in
which she was involved. Despite her
wry wit, or perhaps because of it, her
opinions and contributions came to
be greatly valued by her colleagues.
Born in 1918 in St. Paul,
Minnesota, Loevinger was the third
of five children born to Gustavus and
Millie (Strause) Loevinger. A German
immigrant, her father became a
lawyer and then district court judge.
Her mother was a part-time schoolteacher and amateur pianist. Her
father spent most of his time at work,
leaving management of the household and children to her mother.
Loevinger (2002) recalls thinking this
fairly normal as a child, until she
later learned that there were “foreign” cultures where the family
authority was not the mother.
Loevinger finished high school a
semester early and enrolled at the
University of Minnesota. She went to
vocational counseling and was told
that psychology was “too mathematical” for her, whereupon she immediately enrolled in trigonometry and
declared psychology as her major.
Loevinger graduated magna cum
laude in psychology at the age of 19
and a year later she earned a Master
of Science in psychometrics, also
from the University of Minnesota.
That year APA had its convention
in Minneapolis and she attended
Edward Tolman’s presidential
address. His lively and engaging talk
so impressed her that she enrolled in
graduate school at Berkeley. The
year was 1939 and she had as her
professors Erik Erikson, Else Frenkel
Brunswik, and Nevitt Sanford, all of
whom gave her an appreciation for
psychoanalysis, and Jerzy Neyman,
who strengthened her statistical skills.
At Berkeley, Loevinger was a
research assistant for Erik Erikson,
who was conducting his famous studies on gender differences in play configurations among young children.
Her quantitative and psychometric
skills were of little use to Erikson and
so she moved on into teaching positions in the Bay area, including
Stanford and Berkeley. Because the
Berkeley radiation laboratory
attracted many outstanding physical
science students, Loevinger came to
know many of them. In 1943 she
married Sam Weissman, who was a
postdoctoral scientist working with
Robert Oppenheimer. That same
year, Oppenheimer and his students
and other radiation scientists, including Sam Weissman, left Berkeley to
establish the weapon design component of the Manhattan Project in Los
Alamos, NM.
Loevinger stayed at Berkeley to
finish her dissertation, which was a
critique of psychometric theory and
test reliability. She paid to publish
her dissertation in a vanity journal
because no journal at the time would
15
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Department of Psychology
Campus Box 1125
One Brookings Drive
St. Louis, MO 63130-4899
Psychronicle is an annual newsletter
published by the Department of
Psychology at Washington University
in St. Louis for the benefit of alumni,
friends, and students.
Department of Psychology
Washington University in St. Louis
Campus Box 1125
One Brookings Drive
St. Louis, MO 63130-4899
(314) 935-6565
Randy Larsen, Chair,
Department of Psychology
Jim Clancy, Managing Editor
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Bill Michalski, Designer
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Printed on recycled and recyclable paper
Balancing Act: A Profile of Jane Berry, Ph.D. ’86
By Martha Storandt
J
ane Berry is an alumna of the
Psychology Department at
Washington University through and
through. First her AB in 1979, then
her MA in 1983, followed by her PhD
in 1986. Now Chairman of the
Department of Psychology at the
University of Richmond in Virginia,
Jane and her husband, Allen
Hammer, returned to Washington
University in August 2007 as the
proud parents of an entering freshman, their daughter, Emily.
After her undergraduate years
under the tutelage of Professors
Leonard Green, Tony Schuham, and
Stanley Finger, Jane was a research
assistant for Professor Jack Botwinick
and subsequently entered the Aging
and Development Program. Her master’s project, chaired by Professor
Martha Storandt, focused on age and
sex differences in somatic complaints
associated with depression.
She worked on a number of projects on Type A personality and the
attributional and emotional concomitants of control relinquishment
with Professor Mike Strube, her dissertation chairman. Her lifelong
interest in self-efficacy, especially as
it applies to memory, began with her
dissertation, Memory complaint and
performance in older women: A self-efficacy causal attribution model. She won
the 1987 dissertation award from
APA’s Division on Adult
Development and Aging.
After a postdoctoral fellowship at
the Institute of Gerontology at the
University of Michigan, Jane was a
research psychologist at the Institute
of Personality Assessment and
Research of the University of
California at Berkeley. That’s where
Emily was born, not long before the
earthquake that flattened most of the
interstate bridges in the Bay area.
Jane, Allen, and Emily, however,
came through unscathed.
In 1991 Jane joined the faculty of
the University of Richmond in
Virginia and settled into the life of a
psychology professor at an institution
with a strong emphasis on teaching. In
addition to courses on aging, she has
also taught introductory psychology,
research methods and statistics, history of psychology, personality, memory, human development, and
adolescence. She has received outstanding faculty awards from the university’s School of Arts and Sciences,
Black Students Association, and Psi Chi
Honor Society.
Jane’s teaching style is eclectic with
a core emphasis on the scientific
method. Her students read primary
sources on the theoretical and empirical underpinnings of psychological science. A favorite pedagogical tool is to
bring the arts and humanities into discourse on psychological science. For
example, students in an advanced
seminar on memory read empirical
articles on memory and cognitive
aging and then read The memory of old
Jack (Wendell Berry, 1974; no relation
to Jane) to identify whether literary
authors depict cognitive aging accurately. One of the most gratifying
teaching experiences of Jane’s career is
currently under way. She recently
joined the faculty who teach a
required freshman year-long core
course that includes analysis of the
human condition over time and cultures in great works (e.g., Plato,
Shakespeare, Marx, Darwin, Freud,
DuBois, de Beauvoir, Baldwin, and
Morrison). Her most gratifying experiences as a teacher are to get students to
make connections across disciplines, to
see the value of statistics, and to read
closely, think critically, and write well.
Beginning in the fall of 2007 Jane
assumed the role of chair of the
Psychology Department at the
University of Richmond and the dayto-day demands of running a depart-
Jane Berry
ment with nine full-time faculty (and
three new hires for 2008 and 2009)
and 120 undergraduate majors (25
minors). The department fosters close
faculty-student mentoring relationships by offering opportunities for
undergraduates to work closely with
faculty members. Jane typically has 10
undergraduate research students per
semester and supervises the internship field placements of a dozen or so
majors. One of Jane’s recent honors
students is now a doctoral candidate
at Berkeley and has an article on black
identity forthcoming in the journal
Assessment. She is also revising the
curriculum, moving from a credit- to
a unit-system, and revamping the
large introductory psychological science course to small sections, thereby
bringing all courses in the psychology
curriculum into accordance with the
liberal arts model of small class sizes
that feature critical reading, writing,
and discussion. Appointments to several university committees and task
forces keep Jane busy serving the
broader mission of the university.
Jane has played an active role on
the national scene as well. She was
program chair for APA’s Division on
Adult Aging and Development in
1997 and secretary of the division
from 2002 to 2005. She is currently
the chair of the division’s election
committee. She served as guest editor
for Developmental Psychology and the
Journal of Research on Personality and a
member of the editorial board of the
Journals of Gerontology: Psychological
Sciences. She also has served as a
reviewer for a large number of other
journals and for the National Institutes
of Health where she was a visiting scientist at the National Institute on
Aging from 1998 to 1999. She is currently advisory editor and contributing
author to a forthcoming volume for
the series, Aging in America:
Psychological, physical, and social issues
(Greenwood) edited by John and
Christine Cavanaugh.
Recently Jane’s colleagues in the
department nominated her for the
McEldin Trawick Chair, a six-year
endowed chair (2008-2014) that will
allow Jane to focus on her research on
memory self-efficacy and aging, facilitated by the hire of three successive
two-year postdoctoral fellows. Most
recently this work was supported by a
five-year research grant from the
National Institute on Aging. In a series
of four intensive studies with data on
1,000 adults ranging in age from 20 to
89 years she found that memory selfefficacy explains 7 to 10 percent of the
age-related memory variance across
four episodic memory tasks. These
studies also indicated plausible
explanatory mechanisms: task effort,
strategy use, working memory, speed
of processing, trait memory ability.
Other results from this program indicate that older adults are more realistic
than younger adults in their assessments of their memory abilities, but
when those assessments are negative
they contribute to poorer memory performance, even when initial memory
ability is controlled.
Jane reports that besides the joy her
family brings, her time at Washington
University as an undergraduate and
graduate student in the Department of
Psychology was among her most precious life experiences.